The North Tower Girls
by Tallulah Grammar Songstress
Summary: [Malory Towers] AU-with-superpowers retelling of canon. Five girls, each with a very different talent, team up to protect each other. But what if their most dangerous enemies come from inside?
1. Chapter 1

(A/N: Written for the 12daysChristmas challenge on LiveJournal, prompt "five superheroes". Reviews welcome!)

"So... what is your power, then?" Darrell asked at last.

"Oh." Irene looked round at her, grinned wickedly. "Alicia didn't tell you?"

"Have a heart, Irene," Alicia said from where she was leaning on the back of the sofa. "I may not suffer fools gladly, but I don't reveal other people's secrets without their consent."

Irene laughed. "She'll find out sooner or later - it's hardly a secret, is it? Can I show her?"

"Go ahead."

Irene scrambled off the sofa and hurried out of the room. When she came back, she was clutching a canvas bag which, when she set it down, Darrell could see was lined with neatly folded skeins of wool, each one carefully sealed with a strip of black paper.

"Right," Irene said. "You agree with me that these are all neatly organised? Go on, pick them up if you want. Check for invisible wires -"

"Roll up, roll up, for the greatest show on earth," Alicia put in, laughing.

"Now -" Irene pulled off the gloves she was wearing with a flourish. All the people here wore gloves, Darrell noticed. She thought she could guess why. But even so, Irene's hands were speckled with ink and soot, although they looked very pale against the surface of the bag. She rested her palms on it for a few seconds, then let go and handed the bag to Darrell.

"Go on, look," she said.

Darrell did so, and gasped. All the skeins of wool had come unbound, and were trailing around each other, knotted together, different colours run together like spilt ink.

"How did you..."

"Our dear Irene's power," Alicia said, "is to cause chaos. She's incapable of wearing shoes that lace because they constantly become untied. She can cause any piece of machinery simply to short-circuit by touching it. And while we haven't investigated this, we suspect that she could cause confusion and disorganisation in people simply by laying a gentle hand on their forehead -"

"But there are some problems in testing that," Irene said, "so we can't prove it."

"It certainly seems to hold true for her, however," Alicia said. "Irene takes simple disorganisation to an art form. She's famous at university for - what was it, Irene? Managing to answer a paper on group theory while everyone else was studying metric spaces?"

"I _felt_ like answering a group theory paper," Irene said. "I thought I must have mixed up my timetable."

"Doesn't it..." Darrell swallowed. "Doesn't it make things difficult for you, though? I mean... obviously you can't actually hurt people, but -"

"I wouldn't go that far," Alicia said. "Travelling in vehicles with her, for instance, is always a bit of a risky undertaking." She glanced at Irene. "Not to mention, it's put a damper on her skills as a pianist. When something goes out of tune every time you touch it -"

"Oh, stop it." Irene scowled suddenly. "Don't talk about that, Alicia."

"Whatever you say," Alicia said, lazily. "But you see, Darrell, Irene was my... protege, I suppose you'd call it."

"I wouldn't," Irene said, grinning again as if nothing had happened. "Lab rat, perhaps."

"She was the first person with an unusual attribute I met," Alicia said. "Up until then, I'd been ignoring the signs in myself. Pretending it was just part of my personality. I'm sure you know that way of thinking."

Darrell bit her lip. In some ways, it was worse that Alicia was saying this, rather than asking _why didn't you notice that things broke or exploded around you every time you got angry?_ Because you _didn't_, that was the thing, you just assumed this was _how things were_ until something so awful happened that you couldn't pretend any more.

"But when I met Irene, I realised what was really going on," Alicia said. "And then I thought, well, why not keep an eye out for others? Plus, it probably helped that her unique skills accidentally caused me to break my leg during a game of lacrosse and my skills meant it had healed after half an hour. It's a bit difficult to pretend when that happens."

Darrell tried not to look too shocked. "You really - you really broke your leg and it - it fixed itself? How do you know it was broken?"

"Because it was like this," Alicia said, making a right-angle shape with the tips of her fingers. "Irene and I watched as it straightened itself out again. It was a very interesting experience, when all's said and done. It certainly cured me of pretending."

"And - and the other two, they don't pretend either?"

"I wouldn't say that," Irene said.

"Mary-Lou's being ridiculous about the whole thing," Alicia said. "She swears blind she doesn't know what I'm talking about, when the main reason she's living here is that her family are too frightened to be near her. She's such a little mouse."

"She's the sort of person who just is mouselike, though, I think," Irene said. "Which makes it ironic, considering what she can do."

"And as for Sally, I have no idea what she thinks she's playing at," Alicia said. "To be quite honest, I think she's one of the most unpleasant people I've ever met."

"She's not that bad," Irene said. "She just doesn't seem to... like people very much. If you want unpleasant, think of Gwendoline Mary." To Darrell, she said, "She's Mary-Lou's best friend. Doesn't have any powers, she just hangs around here because she keeps saying how worried she is about Mary-Lou."

"I think she hangs around here because she wants to know everything about all of us," Alicia said. "She's the sort of person who can't bear anyone except her to have any secrets. Anyway, Darrell - that's us. The North Tower girls, I suppose we would be, although I'm not sure how well we'd do at fighting crime. If you can control that temper of yours, you're welcome to stay."


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was still out, but it was an odd, sour colour, and afterwards Darrell realised she should have spotted the clouds rolling up on the horizon.

They were all in the garden - Alicia lying with her face to the sun; Sally hunched over and silent, picking at the grass; Mary-Lou and Gwen chatting on a rug together; Irene lying on her stomach doing homework. Darrell was sitting with her, watching her chew the end of her pencil - every time she did that, the point snapped, and she had to sharpen it, leaving twists of wood in the grass - and every so often, sketch out a flurry of meaningless symbols.

"I don't understand how you can do nothing but maths," she said. "I think I'd go mad!"

"You only think that because it doesn't make sense to you," Irene said. "If you knew what these all meant, it would be fine."

"Well, don't tell me," Darrell said, laughing. "Life is confusing enough at the moment."

Silence for a second except for Alicia's voice in the distance, "Gwen, I don't actually remember asking you over. Not that I don't love your company, but you could treat Mary-Lou in return once in a while, couldn't you?" Gwen mumbling something Darrell couldn't hear.

Then: "Maths isn't confusing," Irene said. "It's the only thing that isn't." She smiled, ruefully. "It just stays as it is. Alicia always said she thought if my powers managed to ruin that, then I could probably unknit the world, so it's jolly good that - oh, bother!" A raindrop had splashed down onto the page, blurring the Greek letters. "This was actually looking neat, too -"

Darrell helped her collect up the papers. Sally was already slouching towards the patio door; she grudgingly held it open until Alicia reached it, then stalked away into the house. Darrell dashed inside and was busy enough helping Irene to put her work back in order that she didn't notice at first what Gwen was doing. When she looked up, she couldn't work it out at first. Gwen was inside, with the rest of them, holding the patio door closed, but Mary-Lou, clutching the blanket, was still outside, struggling with it, the rain spotting her clothes.

"Help her, idiot," Alicia was saying to Gwen. "Don't just stand there -"

There was a sudden boom of thunder and at the same time, the sky flared dull white with lightning. Mary-Lou screamed, and, dropping the rug, wrenched at the door, shaking at the handle. But Gwen was smiling and - and she was holding it shut.

They'd all looked round when Mary-Lou screamed, and Alicia, rolling her eyes, was saying, "Look, you know she's scared of everything, don't you think -" and Sally and Irene weren't saying anything and Mary-Lou was pounding on the glass now, eyes wide and terrified.

"Let her in, why don't you?" Darrell heard herself yell. "She's really scared!"

"I'm just joking," Gwen said, snorting. "Don't be so serious all the time, Darrell."

She was still smiling.

That was what did it.

"_Stop it_!" she yelled, and she knew the power was about to burst out but that was all right, that was _good_, she was helping like someone in a comic, and Gwen just rolled her eyes and Darrell felt the power wrench itself free and hurl itself forward, slamming Gwen off her feet. The door flew open, and Mary-Lou dashed inside, sobbing. Rain spattered after her. Irene was already hurrying over, putting an arm round her, but Alicia had marched over to Darrell, grabbed her by the shoulder.

"_You_ stop it," she said.

"I... but she..."

"Look. Go on."

Darrell stared and stared at the dining table, half-slumped where the legs had been wrenched off; the dent in the wall like a two-foot spider's web; the shattered table lamp sent flying to the floor. Gwen was curled up, trembling.

"I... I didn't..."

"Yes, you did," Alicia said. "If you ask me, it's a jolly sight lucky you didn't do worse. You can't just destroy chunks of the house when you don't get your way, you know."

Darrell nearly carried on shouting, lashing out, breaking things down. Once she was pretty sure that she would have done. But now she was going to be better, wasn't she? Hadn't she always said? Just because she _could_ hurt someone badly didn't mean that anyone had to be scared...

She swallowed hard, trying to keep the tears out of her voice. "I... you're right, Alicia. I'm sorry, it... it was stupid of me. I'll tidy it up - pay for repairs... Gwen, are you all right?"

Gwen got to her feet, shaking flecks of broken china out of her hair. She looked over at Darrell, and she looked furious.

"I'm fine," she said. "No thanks to _you_."

"Well, perhaps if you hadn't tried to scare Mary-Lou silly, the whole thing wouldn't have happened," Alicia said, sounding a little calmer. "Honestly, Gwen, what were you thinking?"

Gwen sniffed, rubbed at her arm. "It was only a _joke_. She could have killed me."

Alicia was saying something sharp back, but Darrell suddenly didn't want to listen any more. She _had_ nearly killed someone, and suddenly she couldn't bear to look any of these people in the eye. Shaking, she hurried towards the door, when she felt a damp hand clutch at her arm.

"Thank you," Mary-Lou whispered, under cover of the argument brewing behind them. "It... I was so scared." 


	3. Chapter 3

Sally knew Darrell was outside the door -

[stupid to stand here being such a coward] [she's so cold I don't] [Mary-Lou needs help and I]

\- and so she called out, "Come in," because she was too tired and cold to start off with _go away_. Sometimes she still remembered what it was like being polite to people.

An unnerved pause - [how did she] [oh, of course] [just get on with it!] - and then the door opened and Darrell peered nervously round it. "Sally? I wanted to talk to you... are you busy?" [so dark in here] [does she ever do anything?]

"I don't do much," she said, and Darrell's eyes widened. Sally could remember feeling triumphant about that sort of thing, once (when they called her _plain_ and _boring_ in their heads and she was able to say _maybe, but at least I'm not worried about being left back a year_ and they'd yell at her, _how did you know_ -)

But now she didn't feel triumphant, she just felt tired.

"What do you want?" she said. The window was slightly open and the white curtain was billowing.

Darrell swallowed, and as she spoke her thoughts echoed the words so Sally knew that she wasn't lying. "I'm worried about Mary-Lou. What - what Gwendoline did to her was really horrible, and she was really scared, but she didn't use her powers at all. I heard Alicia talking to Irene, saying that maybe she's suppressed them somehow, but I don't - I can't believe that would happen. I mean - Alicia said that she thought it was unusual - she wanted to study it further. I just... I don't understand why, if someone's really scared, they wouldn't be able to break through any kind of block. She could have ripped the patio door off if she'd tried."

Sally realised she was becoming interested in the question. She didn't want to be, being interested in things just meant they laughed at you when it went wrong and - and -

She swept her powers into Darrell's mind, looking, looking for the scorn she knew would be there -

[why isn't she answering? She's so strange, I can't work out] [what's wrong with her?]

There.

"I don't know why you'd come to ask me for help," she said.

"Alicia and Irene don't believe there's anything odd going on," Darrell said. "And they both find Mary-Lou a little irritating, don't they? And - and -" [you must know] [you can look in people's heads] [just hiding it from me?]

"And I can help you solve the problem by telling you the answer," Sally said, "and then you can take all the credit and make yourself feel better about nearly killing Gwen."

Darrell went pale. Her eyes were like pools of shadow. [I didn't] [not like] [her too?] [I want to _help_]

"You want to make yourself feel better," Sally repeated.

"No, I don't!" Darrell took a couple of steps forward; the curtain billowed out again. "Mary-Lou's been following me around like a puppy ever since and" [stupid kid] "she needs to learn to stand on her own two feet." [like everyone has to] [I don't deserve] [I don't know what to do!]

This was why Sally didn't let people talk to her, this was why she liked being on her own - how _dare_ Darrell come in here to taunt her that she had no friends, rub it in that she could never be involved in a plan, never form a team? She felt sick and shaky and her own thoughts almost drowned out the hum of Darrell's. "Go away," she stammered out, "go away, do you hear? How dare you come in here and make fun of me?"

"I didn't - this is ridiculous." Darrell's fists were clenched at her sides. "I came here because I wanted your help. You looked angry with Gwen too. I thought you'd understand."

"Get _out_!"

"_Listen_ to me!" Darrell shouted. "Or are you so busy reading thoughts you don't take in what people say?"

(Afterwards, Sally wondered if she'd wanted to trigger something awful, to make the constant noise stop at last, or just to make Darrell miserable. But at the time, she completely forgot that her opponent was dangerous.) She dived forwards, shoved Darrell back towards the door, and then she heard/felt it -

[_**Don't you dare!**_]

The window flew open with a crash and the curtain poured into the room like a ghost and Sally felt the power slam into her, send her flying as if she were in the sea and had been hit by a big wave.

[sorry] [sorry] [is she] [how could I] "Sally, are you all right?"

Sally looked up at her. Darrell's eyes were wide and her hands were shaking a little. She could forgive her.

They could talk.

For goodness sake, hadn't she learnt yet? Furiously, she gritted her teeth, focused on the bruises swelling on her hip and her elbow.

"Go away," she said. "Go away, or I shall tell Alicia you nearly killed me."

[how dare] [no, I] [so sorry!] [wanted to] [wanted to help]

Darrell didn't say anything. At last, she turned and walked away, her thoughts following her like sobbing all down the corridor. Sally stayed sitting on the floor, drew her knees up to her chest. If she could listen to her own thoughts, she knew they would be _I don't care. I don't care_ like sharp regular stitches in a piece of cloth. She didn't care what Darrell Rivers thought of her, and she didn't care about Mary-Lou either. When it came down to it, you couldn't afford to.

ooo

In the end, it was the sadness that did it. She could feel Darrell's thoughts hanging in the air, cold and scared and lonely, every time the two of them were both in the house, never mind in the same room. Normally, she didn't care about other people being miserable. Often they deserved it. But Darrell kept thinking about her powers, about how she'd hurt everyone, about how she couldn't control them and how wicked she was. Sometimes Sally caught flickers of what had happened with her and her family, and then caught herself saying, _I understand, it was bad for me too_ as if Darrell had the same power as her and could listen.

Sally had always clung to the knowledge that she wasn't a coward, whatever else she was, and so at last she sought Darrell out in her turn, told her that things were all right, that she herself was no better. Darrell stared at her, and the relief washed over Sally like hot water.

And sometimes Darrell would come and sit by Sally in the garden, offer food or volunteer to get a rug. Sally tried not to think too hard about this, tried not to notice how warm Darrell's thoughts were. If she thought about it, it might all go wrong. So she thought about Mary-Lou instead; Mary-Lou, and Darrell's questions about her.

"She definitely has powers," she said. "Alicia was positive about it. She's just frightened of them."

"But you can't get rid of them just by being scared." Darrell was sitting on the grass munching an apple, frowning as she ate. "And even if you had, surely being scared about something else would - cancel that out. Wouldn't it? Alicia said she saw Mary-Lou lift up a car with one hand once. She should have been able to open that door."

"Maybe it was panic," Sally said. "Maybe she forgot. Like when you're scared and trying to open the front door and can't get your key in the lock. Something like that." Darrell didn't answer - her thoughts were still puzzling over the same questions - and so Sally carried on: "Either she's scared, or something is actually stopping her powers from working. And before you ask, I can't work it out any more than you can. She's just... always nervous. That's all that's in her head." The problem was intriguing her, and so she carried on, half to herself, "If I were a scientist, I'd put her in a situation where she'd really _want_ to use her powers. That would probably explain it."

Darrell wasn't at the house much for a while after that; she took to going out for walks, sometimes with Mary-Lou, sometimes without. Her thoughts seemed purposeful, expectant, but without digging deeper Sally couldn't work out whether she actually had a plan. And she didn't really want to dig deeper. This - this friendship might get crushed if she did.

Both Darrell and Mary-Lou were out when Irene came crashing into Sally's room, tripping over a sudden fold in the carpet as she did: "Come downstairs - on the television - you have to see this!"

On the little black-and-white screen was a reporter, standing in front of a black, smoking ruin of a building. "... no one has been seriously injured in the blaze, thanks to the actions of plucky local girl Mary-Lou Ireson! Miss Ireson and her friend Darrell Rivers were out walking when they spotted the blaze -" The screen cut to Darrell, smeared with soot and with a blanket wrapped round her shoulders.

"I was very foolish," she was saying, but her eyes were glinting and a smile was doing its best to dance across her face. "I saw the flames and I just ran forward to see if anyone was trapped... I didn't think. Mary-Lou ran after me and got me out just in time."

"Onlookers report seeing your friend lift a burning beam blocking her path and throw it out of the way, despite it being twice as tall as she was. Is there any truth in that amazing story?"

"I didn't really see," Darrell said. "All I know is that Mary-Lou saved my life. She's a real hero."

Mary-Lou arrived home with bandages on her hands and a shy smile on her face.

"I didn't think," she explained, gazing up at them. "I just had to help Darrell. She helped me. And I - I couldn't have done it if I hadn't got my powers."

"I'm glad to hear it," Alicia said. "From now on, you're the person in this house who does all the heavy lifting." Irene gleefully sung a victory chant, and even Gwen smiled at Mary-Lou and then patted Darrell on the shoulder, saying, "I'm glad you're all right."

Sally waited until she and Darrell were alone to say, "That was a very fortunate coincidence, finding a perilous situation just when you wanted Mary-Lou to prove herself."

Darrell glanced at the ground; grinned. "I didn't set fire to anything, if that's what you're thinking." [I just thought in a city this size] [bound to be something dangerous] [just had to]

"You could have been killed."

"I probably could have blasted that beam out of the way," Darrell said, wrinkling her forehead. "I think, anyway. But - I wanted to do something right." [wouldn't matter if I] [Mary-Lou's a good person] [so much to make up for]

"Well," Sally said at last, "I'm glad you're all right."


	4. Chapter 4

The TV was the only light in the room; Mary-Lou sat on the sofa, knees to chest, watching the reporter. It was the same man who'd been at the scene of the fire, but now he looked much sadder.

"... most terrible loss of life this city has seen in years. The exact details of the tragedy are as yet unclear, but witnesses have described seeing parts of the structure seemingly explode or rip apart of their own accord..."

Mary-Lou felt as if there was a fire in her mind, throwing flickering light onto her thoughts; making them look... different. When the news report finished, she switched off the TV and then sat staring at her hands. The burns were healing over now; smooth, puffy, itching a little. Even with them she knew that if she wanted to, she could pick up the solid oak dining table in the next room and balance it on her hand like it was a tray. She knew it and it felt like she'd always known it, so why, a few days ago, had it seemed so unclear?

She thought she might know the answer.

The house was quiet. Darrell was upstairs in her room, probably, where she'd been ever since the news of the tragedy had broken. She'd sworn she had nothing to do with it and Sally had backed her up, _you know I'd be able to tell if she were lying and I promise you, she isn't!_ But Alicia was still suspicious, they could all tell. Irene might be as well. Those two knew a lot more about powers. Maybe they'd heard of powers where you could lie in your thoughts and trick someone like Sally. But Mary-Lou didn't need to know things like that. She knew that Darrell wouldn't hurt anyone.

_All the times she's lost her temper, she's only broken __**things**_, she'd said. _And - and also, to break a whole building like that you'd need to be really angry, or - or stand there and decide to attack it. She wouldn't do that._

But that hadn't been enough. And now Darrell was miserable no matter how hard she tried to pretend to Mary-Lou that she was all right.

And she was Mary-Lou's friend.

In the end, Mary-Lou scrambled to her feet and walked into the kitchen. Gwendoline was already there, rooting through the cupboards. Mary-Lou realised that she was looking through other people's spaces, eating their foods. She'd never noticed this behaviour before, either.

"The news has finished," she said.

"I don't know why you wanted to bother with that. It's so boring." Gwen set a tin of condensed milk down on the table and started searching for a tin opener.

"I wanted to see what they were saying about the Trinity Street thing."

"Are they saying anything new?" Gwen turned to face her, sounding a little more interested.

"Not really."

"It's so terrible," Gwen said, leaning back on the counter. "Darrell must be feeling awful about it."

Mary-Lou took a deep breath. Her palms were very sweaty suddenly, and her stomach ached a little. "That's why you did it, isn't - isn't it? So that she would be sad."

Silence for a second.

"Mary-Lou!" Gwen laughed, a sharp, awkward sound. "What a thing to say!"

"I'm sorry, Gwen, but I think it must have been you. You see, if there had been another person with powers like Darrell's, there probably would have been reports of odd things happening. If - if you look up the newspapers for places where Darrell's lived, you find stories about - about odd accidents, things breaking, local boys blamed for smashing windows... it isn't much, but... And there doesn't seem to be a similar trail for anyone else."

"Well, that just proves that she actually did it, don't you think? I don't see what it has to do with me."

"Well - you -" Mary-Lou swallowed. _It doesn't matter if she laughs or if she's angry, Darrell needs my help -_ "You can take other people's powers, can't you?"

"I don't know what on earth you're talking about."

"I think that... that if you touch someone, you pick up their powers. And then they have to wait for a bit. They have to regrow them, I suppose - like it's hair. That's why, when you shut me out in the rain, I couldn't open the door. You'd been sitting with me, arm in arm with me. You'd just taken my powers. You - you've been my friend for a long time and you've been taking my powers all this time. That's why I managed to - to make myself think they weren't there. I wanted them not to be, and you took them."

"This is ridiculous," Gwen said, her mouth twisting into a scowl. "You don't have any proof of this."

"You took Darrell's powers, and then you went and destroyed those shops."

"If you're just going to keep saying the same thing over and over again -" Gwen snorted. "I think you need to get some rest, Mary-Lou. Besides, if I do have this clever plan, why hasn't Sally worked it out?"

"I don't know." Mary-Lou was feeling a bit better now. Gwen wasn't shouting and being upset. If she'd been innocent, she would have been horrified that anyone could think she'd do such a thing. But she wasn't. She was just talking like she was trying to win a not-very-important argument. "Perhaps you've been taking her powers - just a little, just enough so that she isn't reading your thoughts. Also, she told us that she's been trying to hold back, do you remember? She hasn't been digging as deep. Maybe that's when you got the idea."

"It still doesn't prove anything."

"Yes, but when I tell Alicia, she'll be able to study it scientifically." Mary-Lou tried to look calm and strong like Alicia would. "If you have a power, she'll be able to see it in your DNA. So - so if you haven't done anything wrong, then it won't be a problem her doing that, will it?"

Gwen opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Then she smiled.

"So you haven't told Alicia yet?" she said.

"I wanted to - to ask you first."

"Why?"

"People have - people have been killed, Gwen." Mary-Lou swallowed. "They dug out some more bodies today, they said. I don't - you - you were my friend. I wanted to ask you why you'd done that, just to get back at Darrell. I wanted..." _I wanted to ask why you hurt me. Did you ever care about me? Even a little bit?_ But she didn't say that bit. She probably wasn't quite brave enough to.

Gwen shrugged. "Why not?" she said.

"I - what?"

"Why not? Oh, for goodness sake, Mary-Lou. We're special, aren't we?" Gwen flicked her hair back, irritatedly. "If we've been given special powers, then we have a right to use them. And Alicia and Darrell were so arrogant. Thinking I didn't know anything, I was just some idiot? None of you worked it out."

"I have."

"Of course you have, _now_." Gwen laughed - started walking towards Mary-Lou. "You little idiot! Of course I needed a friend with useful powers so I had an excuse to get close to her. You weren't quite right about Sally, by the way. I think that I don't even have to touch someone to affect them, but only a little bit. Someone like you wouldn't notice it - you'd just be a little weaker - but with Sally, I think my thoughts are murky to her. I think she can't quite make them out." She was still walking closer. Mary-Lou took a step backwards before she could think. "You know how that idiot Irene carries a wave of disorganisation with her? I think I'm like that. Anyway, I knew that you wouldn't work it out."

"But _why do it_?" Mary-Lou wished there was a piece of furniture between them. She could lift Gwen off her feet, but as soon as she did, Gwen would be able to touch her, suck out her powers, and then she'd just be silly little Mary-Lou again, unable to do anything, useless -

"How dare Darrell treat me like that?" Gwen said, and she didn't even look ashamed, or like anyone might disagree with her. "People like that just need a lesson taught to them."

Mary-Lou turned to run just as Gwen dived forward, grabbed at her. Her fingers scraped down Mary-Lou's arm and even just with that contact Mary-Lou felt it, power seeping away from her, and she fell forward, stumbling, hands scrabbling on the floor as she tried to keep her balance. She had to run - she had to find one of the others and tell them -

Just as she reached the door, something hard slammed into her back and sent her flying. She lay still, gasping, trying to catch her breath. Looked round to see the kitchen chair Gwen had flicked at her lying on its side, and Gwen walking towards her, mouth twisted into a pout.

"You're so stupid," she said. "I can't believe you didn't tell anyone else." She'd grabbed Mary-Lou's hair, clutched at the back of her neck. Her fingers were cold. "Oh well, I suppose it won't matter now."

Mary-Lou could feel the rest of her power being torn out of her. It hurt. It hadn't hurt like this before. She'd just always been tired, and yet - and yet she was, her head was heavy, her arms and legs aching as if they were being buried in golden syrup. She was too tired to talk, but she thought, one word in front of the next, _had to... talk to you first... wanted to know..._

_and... if I didn't do it now then... too scared..._

"See, we've been thinking," Gwen said, from far away, "we've been thinking that if I try hard enough, I could take everything - not just powers, everything -"

It hurt but the hurt was just on the surface of a black pit of nothing opening up inside her and

and

_no_

_NO, I WANT TO BE STRONG_

She had almost collapsed and so she didn't hear the running footsteps, didn't see Darrell and Sally burst into the kitchen, didn't see Darrell lift Gwen off her feet with a rush of force that shattered the kitchen window and broke every plate in the room. She vaguely registered that someone was putting a coat round her, helping her sit up, but she wasn't awake enough to see Gwen scramble over the kitchen sink and out through the smashed window, or to register that Darrell was crying.

She stayed in bed for four days, sleeping a lot, eating when she woke. When she was finally able to sit up without feeling exhausted, she saw that Alicia was sitting in the room with her, reading a book.

"You look better now," she commented, glancing up from it. "That's good."

"Is... what happened to..."

"Gwendoline got away," Alicia said. "Unfortunately. I knew I never liked that girl. But Sally skimmed your memories of what happened, saw Gwen admitting what she'd done. So your crazy plan worked." She smiled wryly. "I've apologised to Darrell. I suppose my disdain was why you did something so reckless."

"Not... not exactly."

"Don't you watch any films, Mary-Lou? _Never_ confront the baddie without proof or witnesses! You can't always rely on having a telepath in the house to pick up your distress calls."

"I'm sorry."

Alicia shrugged. "Apology accepted. I'm glad you seem all right, though. I would hate to lose one of the North Tower Girls. I've got rather used to having you all around."

ooo

The sky was bright, flat blue - rather like painted tin, Darrell thought. She wrapped her coat more snugly around herself, and took a few more steps towards the front gate of the house. The garden was bare, the earth frozen over, and the trees were bare too. Their shadows fell onto the sunlit walls and Darrell remembered climbing the trees, waving at the house, trying to make her own shadow appear -

She bit her lip and kept walking; the gate creaked as she opened it, and then she was walking up towards the front door. Before she was even halfway there, though, it flew open, and Felicity was stumbling out to meet her, almost slipping on the bare ground in her excitement. "_Darrell_!"

"Be careful!" Darrell called, hurrying over. "You'll slip - Felicity -"

"Oh, don't be such a wet blanket." Felicity was scrambling down the path, her crutch leaving neat semi-circular imprints in the earth. "Where have you been? Why didn't you come and see us earlier? A fine sister you are!"

She was smiling as she said it, seemingly unaware of any truth it might contain, but Darrell had to swallow a few times before she was able to say, "I know. I'm sorry, I just... it was difficult..."

Felicity reached her, and Darrell caught her by the arm, let her lean on her. "Come on, let's get back into the house."

Felicity pulled her arm free. "Stop that, I manage fine without you most of the time. Just because you're the big sister - oh, Darrell, Mother and Daddy will be so excited to see you!"

"I doubt they'll be excited as you seem to be."

Felicity stopped, turned to look at her. "You should have come back to see us before." Her face was serious suddenly.

"I couldn't." Darrell didn't think she could explain to Felicity how it felt being back at home, how she could hear the memories of the screaming and yelling and Felicity sobbing and cold air and _all my fault, all my fault -_

"I wish you didn't still blame yourself," Felicity said softly.

"Why on earth shouldn't I?"

"Because it won't help. They've forgiven you, you know that - they forgave you long ago. And I wasn't cross with you. I was being a little brat, trying to make you angry. Neither of us knew that _that_ was going to happen if I succeeded."

Silence for a few moments. The air was very still.

"I thought I'd lost my sister," Felicity said, squeezing Darrell's arm.

"I thought..." Darrell gulped, squinted at the frosty ground. "I thought you wouldn't want her back."

"Well, that's just silly," Felicity said. "I always wanted her back. Now come on. Let's get inside."

(A/N: Retelling of the second book to follow!)


	5. Chapter 5

Outside it was thundering, but Mary-Lou only jumped a little when it was very loud, rather than cowering and crying as she would have done a year ago. It probably helped you to stop being scared, Darrell thought, when you knew you could lift up a car with your bare hands.

Or perhaps Mary-Lou was just distracted by the supper-time conversation. There were five of them tonight – her and Mary-Lou, Alicia, Sally, and the girl who'd just moved in since Irene had begun living up at the university. Ellen, that was her name: frowning, eating the stew as if she wasn't really tasting it. _Telekinesis_, Alicia had said. _Very limited, but she's still an excellent research assistant. Terribly hard-working._ There had been an unspoken suggestion that _hard-working_ meant _dull_, but then, Alicia found a lot of people dull.

"No, please do tell us how it went," she was saying now. "I'm genuinely interested." And to Ellen: "Sally's done terribly well – she's just become town council representative for people with... special abilities. It's quite amazing, really."

Darrell saw Sally's eyes narrow a little. You didn't have to be a telepath to spot that Alicia wasn't being entirely sincere. Although since Alicia had been hoping to get the same position, that wasn't surprising.

"It went well," Sally said, shortly. "So far, everyone seems very willing to talk about things and listen to each other."

"Well, it wouldn't matter to you if they didn't, would it?" Alicia said, smiling.

"There's only so much I can do if people want to be intentionally obstructive," Sally said, not smiling back.

"You must have had an awful lot to talk about," Mary-Lou said, hastily. "There's so much to consider now they know people like us exist."

Sally nodded. "It was mostly about the compulsory disclosure of powers, though."

"They're still trotting that one out?" Alicia said. "I hope you gave them short shrift."

"Actually," Sally said, directing her words to her plate, "I thought they made some very useful points."

"Excuse me?" Alicia was smiling again, but as if she had to laugh at someone being so stupid. "You aren't saying you think it's all right for people to have to declare what powers they hold, are you?"

"I'm saying – and I said – that if people have abilities which give them a significant advantage over others -" Sally's voice was tightening a little. Darrell felt sorry for her – Alicia wasn't an enjoyable person to argue with at the best of times - "then those others should perhaps be aware of that. For instance, I think you should know when you're around me that I can pick up on your thoughts unless I make a strong effort not to. Not to mention more information might have avoided what happened last year with Gwendoline."

Alicia shrugged, ate another mouthful of stew. The thunder crashed again. Ellen glanced warily from one to the other of them.

"If you say so," Alicia said at last. "Personally, I think you're coming at it from an unnecessarily personal angle, but... _you're_ the representative, after all -"

It was just the kind of casual attack that Darrell knew Sally hated, but just at that moment they heard the front door unlocking and Irene was hurrying in, making the lights flicker and sending the shoe-rack toppling down the hall. "Golly, it's absolutely awful weather out there! Alicia, Darrell, Mary-Lou, I picked up a couple of strays up at the halls -"

"Irene!" Mary-Lou protested, laughing. "I'm sure they're not strays!"

"Oh, I'm sure I give that impression," one of the girls who'd followed Irene into the house said. Her short dark hair was damp, and raindrops mingled with freckles on her face. "Sorry I'm dripping everywhere – I did have an umbrella, but... well..."

"Belinda has a rather handy knack of bringing things to life through drawing," Irene said. "Unfortunately -"

"Oh, yes – Irene told me!" Alicia got to her feet, eyes glinting with the usual fascination she showed whenever someone with a new and interesting power presented themselves. "Anything you draw comes to life, but then it vanishes after half an hour, yes?"

"That's right," Belinda said. "So I drew the umbrella before I left, but I couldn't find my front door key, and I considered drawing a copy but I suspected it might not fit the lock, and then by the time I found it, I'd lost ten minutes, so the umbrella popped out of existence at the top of your street rather than at your front door."

"I'm not sure you and Irene should be rooming together," Alicia said. "I can't help feeling you'll create a perfect storm of chaos and no doubt risk destroying the world. Perhaps your disclosure idea has something in it after all, Sally – but won't you introduce me to your other stray?"

The other girl was equally wet, but her hair, streaming water down her face, was long and blonde, and she extended a hand to Alicia as if she were wearing a fur coat and at a party. "It's _lovely_ to meet you – Irene's told me so much about you. I'm Daphne Millicent Turner, and I'm so sorry to be so dishevelled! I have an absolutely beautiful umbrella I got from Liberty's, but I left it at home, so Belinda let me share hers... until..."

"Daphne's telekinetic as well," Irene said. "So I said I'd introduce her to Ellen -" She glanced quickly between the two of them, probably thinking, as Darrell was, that they were hardly obvious friends. But Mary-Lou was already hurrying forwards: "I'll get some towels! Oh, and some tea – and I'm sure there's enough stew if you – and Belinda, of course – if you'd like to join us -" She was blushing a little, and Darrell saw Sally glance at her, smile slightly. Again, though, you didn't need to be a telepath to spot shyness. Still, at least it meant the argument seemed to have been forgotten.


	6. Chapter 6

Sally couldn't remember the last time she was quite this angry. It being completely justified anger didn't make it any better. Not least because displays of high emotion only gave Alicia more to make fun of.

"For goodness sake," she was saying now, arms folded, half-smile on her face as she leant against the dining room table, "Nobody was hurt, and really, I'm not sorry – if they're going to debate such stupid ideas then they deserve everything they get -" And under that, her thoughts: [it's ridiculous] [gets so worked up] [I'd be much better as representative, everyone knows it] [studying these phenomena for years]

"You tricked me," Belinda said, voice slightly muffled because she had her head rested in her hands. "Sally, I promise, I never would have done it if I'd have realised -"

Sally believed her – her thoughts were echoing almost exactly what she was saying. No, she knew very well whose idea this was.

"What's happened?" Darrell hurried into the room. "Was the meeting really horrible, Sally?" She glanced from Sally to Alicia to Belinda. [hope Sally's all right] [wanted her to be all right] [what if they laughed at her?]

"You could say that." Sally found her throat tightening with fury as she remembered (and perhaps she was angry, too, that Darrell had thought she might look stupid). "Alicia was working with Belinda to explore her powers. You remember, they were wondering what might happen if Belinda drew a picture of a real person? Whether it would make a copy or something?"

Darrell nodded uncertainly. "Does it?"

"No," Sally said, and she was trying to keep her voice level but she could hear it becoming choked. Alicia was smiling: [so serious!] [she doesn't understand, that disclosure argument was dangerous] [she can't even keep a cool head] "No, it allows you to control the person's actions. Alicia suggested Belinda draw Councillor Rougier and Councillor Dupont having a fight: throwing papers at each other, pulling each other's hair. She said the two had been willing to act as test subjects."

"I can't believe I actually thought that was true," Belinda said, turning to glare at Alicia.

"It was funny," Alicia said, glancing away.

"No, it_ wasn't_!" Sally heard her voice rise. "They called the police in, Alicia! Forget people with powers having to disclose them – at this rate they'll drum us _out_ of town!"

Alicia shrugged: "Oh, don't be so melodramatic -" but her thoughts whispered, [good] [they should be a little more scared of us] [being taken for granted]

Darrell came across to Sally, put an arm around her. "No one will think it was your fault, Sally." She was warm and her thoughts were a comforting barrage of [Alicia's an idiot] [poor Sally] [how dare she?] but Sally couldn't stop thinking of everyone's stares and whispers and her own stuttering attempts to justify what had just happened. Thank goodness people couldn't read _her_ thoughts.

Running footsteps. The front door was wrenched open and Mary-Lou stood there, gasping for breath, hair dishevelled, coatless. "Darrell – Alicia – Sally – quickly, put the television on, the news -"

"If it's about the council meeting -" Belinda started, but Sally was getting flickers of panic from Mary-Lou that told her it was about much more than that. She dashed over to the set. The little screen glowed into life, a sombre reporter standing in front of the university gates.

"... scene at the council chambers today was initially presumed to be a malicious prank," he was saying, "but police are now wondering if it was intended to act as a diversion while the attack on the university occurred. Witnesses are unable to give accounts of what they saw, but the fire has damaged most of the offices and research laboratories in the west building, and several people have suffered injuries in fleeing the scene."

Alicia had gone pale.

"That..." She swallowed. "Someone must have known what..." [Belinda and I were talking here] [Sally] [Darrell] [Mary-Lou]

"Someone in this house overheard?" Darrell said. "But... who'd do something like this?"

"Not you or Mary-Lou," Alicia said. A quick glance, and then: "And not Sally, either." [Too good] [Not going to disgrace herself like that just to get to me!] And then an odd little mental twitch of [Surely not -] before she turned to look at Sally and both thought and spoke, "Ellen or Daphne."

"Not Daphne," Darrell said. "I saw her go out this morning and she hasn't been back since. Ellen... Ellen's been in her room..."

Alicia was already marching towards the door. Sally hurried after her: "Alicia, don't – you can't just storm in and accuse someone like that -"

"Please don't tell me what I can and can't do," Alicia said, very, very lightly. "You may be a council representative but you're not the mayor." She started up the stairs. "And, if you don't mind, I'm a little annoyed that large portions of my research notes appear to have gone up in smoke. I'd quite like to get to the bottom of this -" She reached the landing, strode over to Ellen's bedroom door, knocked loudly on it and flung it open. By the time Sally got there, she'd already started, "Hello, Ellen – is there anything you'd like to tell me about what you've been doing today?"

Ellen had been sitting at her desk; she got to her feet now, scowling. "What do you mean? Do you normally just burst into people's rooms like this?"

"I do when I discover someone used something _I_ was planning in order to set fire to my workplace," Alicia said. [Look at her, so jumpy] [she even looks guilty] [can't even hide it!] [that idiot Sally thinks -]

Ellen stared at her. "What are you talking about? I... I haven't..." [does she know?] [it can't be anything to do with -]

Sally stared at her. She wanted to believe the thoughts she'd just heard had been her own mind playing tricks on her, but no – ringing in her ears was not furious denial, or confusion, but nervousness. Guilt.

"Ellen," she said, "if you've got anything to do with what's happened, you should tell us."

"I haven't!" Ellen gasped. "I don't know what Alicia means! I haven't done anything!" [I said I wouldn't]

"If you're asking that," Alicia said, "then she must be guilty. You can hear her thoughts, can't you?"

Sally didn't want to admit that that was what she was doing – and if she didn't want to give Alicia the satisfaction of being right, then so what? No one was listening to _her_ thoughts – but Ellen had gone pale and, scrambling to her feet, snapped, "What I'm thinking is none of your business! I haven't done anything wrong -"

"Then why isn't Sally backing you up?" Alicia said. "Dear Sally is so _good._ If she thought you were innocent, she'd say something."

Sally opened her mouth to tell Alicia to be quiet, but the other girl cut across her: "Well? If she's got nothing to hide, you'd know, wouldn't you?"

"Stop it!" Darrell said fiercely. "Why on earth would Ellen want to hurt you, Alicia? She's been helping you! The only person I can think of who would want to do something like this is Gwendoline -"

As she said the name, Sally felt Ellen's thoughts jump, echoing it, and the image of blonde hair and a scowl popped up in her mind.

"You... you know her," she said, before she could think.

Ellen was pale, the shadows under her eyes standing out like fingerprints.

"How interesting," Alicia said. "Or are you denying this, too?"

Ellen's mouth was crumpling. She pressed her hand to it. [can't] [can't tell them] Sally frowned, trying to work out what it was the thoughts were saying, but the barrage of emotions and panic were making it too hard to hear -

"Well?" Alicia said to her. "What's she thinking?"

"_Stop it_!" Ellen screamed, and the framed picture on the desk hurled itself forward, flew over Sally's head and smashed against the doorframe. Mary-Lou cried out; Darrell shouted, "How dare you?" and her powers sent Ellen flying, sprawling across the floor, and above them the lightbulb burst, plunging the room into half-darkness. Ellen screamed – Sally couldn't tell if it was spoken or thought, it was just a long scream of _I hate you I hate you leave me alone_ \- and the books on the desk and the little shelf were flung into the air, flying across the room, pages flapping – the curtains billowed out and then the window shattered, the glass glittering as it burst.

Sally found herself huddled on the floor, staring at the broken glass spattered across the carpet. Darrell was kneeling next to her: "Sally? Sally, are you all right?" Mary-Lou was crying as she and Belinda started to pick up the broken glass. Ellen was gone.

"We may as well not bother tidying this up tonight," Alicia said, coming back into the room with a candle. "I'll get another bulb and have that window fixed. Honestly, Darrell, you could have kept more of a grip on yourself."

"So could you," Darrell said, glowering up at her. "Sally _told_ you not to go confronting Ellen to her face like that."

Sally was too tired to agree. She rested her head on her knees and tried not to think about how bad a day it had been. Darrell stayed sitting with her, an arm round her shoulders, thoughts a soft whisper.

ooo

Daphne wished they hadn't had to meet in such a down-at-heel cafe. It smelt of egg and grease and wet hair, and the people in it were the sort that she liked to pretend she knew nothing about. Common, rough men grabbing breakfast before going to work factory shifts; shop girls smoking and leaving lipstick marks on coffee cups. _Not me,_ she told herself. _Not me._ Her powers would see to that. And this time, she wouldn't get caught.

Gwendoline, opposite her, was staring round with a sour expression on her face. "I can't stand places like this. I'm so sorry, Daphne. I thought I was going to be able to meet at – well, someone else's home, somewhere _nice_, but then I was told I had to make my own arrangements, and I couldn't risk Alicia or one of the others seeing you coming to _my_ rooms."

"That's _quite_ all right," Daphne said, and switched on the charm just a little, just to make her hair less damp and flat, her complexion a little brighter. "We're nearly finished, though, aren't we? I've told you everything that happened."

"And you're sure they don't suspect you?" Gwendoline took a large bite of the Bath bun she'd ordered, and said round it, "Alicia always thinks the worst of everyone."

"Please, Gwendoline, I've got the situation _entirely_ under control." Daphne smiled again to remember it. In the kitchen that morning, she'd let the power swell in her voice like syrup as she'd said to Darrell, _I went out half an hour ago, and I won't be in the house again until this evening._ To Alicia as the girl fumbled for candle and matches, _there's no one here except you_. To Mary-Lou, that night, _what cut on my face? There isn't anything -_

She bit her lip as she remembered that, and Gwen smirked: "It didn't stop you getting hit when everything started exploding, did it? How lucky that you can deflect awkward questions."

"I didn't even need to do that, once I remembered to hide it. Only Mary-Lou noticed..."

She perhaps hadn't intended to mention Mary-Lou. Gwendoline was already scowling: "I bet she was in hysterics after what happened. I'm surprised she had the time to notice anything."

"She was all right, actually. She made everyone some tea and volunteered to come out to the university with Alicia and help sift through what they've salvaged. Alicia told her not to bother, though. I think she was too angry to want help, though she's trying to pretend she doesn't mind too much about what happened..."

Gwen frowned at her for a second before shrugging and taking another bite of bun.

"Well," she said, "we'll put the next stage into operation soon. As soon as I have more information, I'll give you your orders."

"Orders? Surely it's only to keep letting you know what's happening at the house." Daphne reached for the slightly sticky sugar bowl, added another spoonful to her coffee in the hope that she could convince herself to actually drink it. She could hear her parents shaking their heads at her for wasting the money on something she wasn't even going to drink. Maybe she could make the cup look prettier – but _she_ would still be able to see that it was just chipped white china.

"For now," Gwen said, looking smug. "But I'll - _we'll_ \- need you to do more than that, later."

"Oh."

"Are you scared?" Gwen said. "I mean... you've done an awful lot of other things. I suppose when you keep getting caught it must make you nervous -"

"Not at all," Daphne was beginning, but Gwen carried on, "Or are you feeling sorry for Mary-Lou? After all, I've heard a lot more than I wanted about how she's been cooking you meals or making you tea or lending you stockings and gloves and umbrellas..."

"Are you enjoying that bun?" Daphne said in her sweetest voice. "Only I would hate to make you think it had turned into something... not very nice."

Gwen swallowed her latest mouthful and scowled at Daphne.

"Just so you know," Daphne carried on, "I really don't give two hoots about Mary-Lou, any more than any of the others. I just don't want to run into... difficulties again. Now that there's more knowledge of people like us, convincing a jury to let a person off might be more difficult. They might take precautions."

"You won't get caught this time," Gwen said. "My _associate_ -"

"I'd love to meet this person," Daphne said. "I quite wonder whether she even exists, she sounds so intelligent -"

"My associate has worked everything out. _She_ recognises potential and good breeding when she sees it." Gwen preened a little. "She came to find me because she knew my skills would be invaluable. She wasn't even disappointed when that idiot Ellen wouldn't help us." A sigh. "I really thought she might. Her people are terribly poor, you know. I thought she'd do anything for money. She turned up again after she ran away from Alicia's, can you believe it? Of course I sent her packing. Her powers are miniscule – even that incident at the house was overreaching for her. Headaches, delirium, shaking all over. Whereas people like you and I – we can do what we want and it won't hurt us a bit."

Daphne smiled. Yes, that was true. "All right. Well, I'm sure you'll be in touch." She got to her feet before her companion could – she didn't like letting Gwen get too close to her. She had no intention of letting anyone bewitch _her._


	7. Chapter 7

"You're awfully late!" Darrell said, as Alicia opened the front door. "I was wondering if you'd got lost or something!"

"Even on a bicycle, I couldn't get through the traffic," Alicia said, pulling off her damp coat and hat. "I jolly well wish I had the power to fly sometimes, especially on a stormy night like this."

"It probably wouldn't be any warmer, though. Come and sit down, I'll put the kettle on."

Sally was sitting at the dining room table, reading through a yellow-paged report. She glanced up as Alicia walked in, gave a small smile. Alicia wanted to tell her to stop holding a grudge, but – not that she would ever admit it – she could see that Sally had reason to be angry with her. Of course Ellen had been out to cause trouble from the start, but she herself should have been more circumspect. Now Ellen had disappeared and they had no way of knowing what she'd been up to, how Gwendoline was involved, what the two might be plotting next -

A gust of wind rattled the windows. Alicia jumped, and then wanted to shake herself for being so twitchy. She was far too old to be scared of storms. Particularly as she could heal from any injury life – or anyone in it – chose to throw at her.

"It does sound horrible out there," Sally said. She glanced at Alicia, then down at her work again. "I'm glad you got home safely."

It was typical of Sally's over-controlled manner, but Alicia suspected it was an awkward attempt to make peace. Perhaps Sally was thinking about what had happened too – that they'd clearly had a traitor in their midst without even realising, that there was a whole lot more at stake than a silly council position. At any rate, Alicia made herself smile and say, "Well, if anyone is made for dodging cars in the rain, it's me. I wasn't sorry to get indoors, though." She looked round the shadowy room. "Where's Mary-Lou? Not hiding under the bed, I hope?"

Sally and Darrell glanced at each other; Darrell looked exasperated. "She went out earlier. Apparently Daphne is at the other end of town and forgot her purse. Mary-Lou went to bring her home, lend her the bus fare, take her an umbrella..."

"Which is fair enough," Sally said, "but I've noticed she's borrowing things off Mary-Lou a lot. I'm starting to wonder whether she's taking advantage of her a little."

"Goodness knows why she'd need to," Alicia said. "Her people are terribly well-off; she paid three months rent upfront. Perhaps she's one of those who just doesn't quite realise the value of money."

Darrell started to speak, but then they heard the front door open again, and a moment later, Daphne walked into the room, pushing her damp hair off her face. "Goodness, I'm so cold! I hate being outside on nights like this..."

She stopped as she saw Alicia, mouth hanging open a little. "Alicia! I didn't... I mean... I'm surprised you're home this early with the weather like that."

Alicia thought that looked a good deal more surprise than needed, but she'd long thought Daphne was the kind of person who liked to say things to appear oh-so-gracious. Perhaps it was a rather shabby example of that.

"Where's Mary-Lou?" Darrell said after a moment, when it became obvious that no one else had come inside. "Didn't she find you?"

Daphne frowned. "Find me? Was she looking for me?" She bit her lip. "I've been at the shops all day – I don't think she said she'd come and meet me..."

"You phoned here," Darrell said, turning round to face her. "A couple of hours ago, I think it was. You'd forgotten your purse? Mary-Lou went to find you."

Alicia could already feel small chills creeping down her back that something wasn't quite right, but Daphne went completely white, and actually clutched at the doorframe as if she was about to faint.

"Is that what I said?" she stammered. "That Mary-Lou needed to come and find me? Where did she think she had to go?"

"She didn't say," Darrell said, glancing nervously at Sally. "Right over on the other side of town – she said it would be too far for you to walk. I tried to convince her you could call a taxi, but she wouldn't listen -"

"The old church," Daphne interrupted. "On Clifftop Road. That's where, isn't it? Of _course_ \- it was meant to be _you_," she said to Alicia, "but you weren't home -"

"What are you talking about -" Darrell began, but Daphne was already hurrying out into the hallway and a moment later they heard the whirr of a number being dialled and her voice, shaking: "A taxi, please, from North Tower House on Cornwall Street to Clifftop Road – it's _extremely urgent_ -"

"It's a trap," she sobbed, once they were crammed into the dark car. Alicia could feel her shaking. "Gwen said she needed my powers. I didn't want to risk giving them to her, but I didn't want to risk getting caught at the scene either, so I let her. It was supposed to be you, Alicia – she'd pretend to be someone else, lure you out, say she'd found someone with powers in need of help -"

"You've been working with Gwendoline from the start," Alicia heard herself say, an amused edge to her voice because she couldn't quite believe how much of a mistake she'd made.

"Yes," Daphne said, sniffing. "She said if we managed to get rid of you, there'd be no one to stop us doing whatever we wanted with our powers. I've done that anyway – oh, you won't want to even look at me when you find out everything – but if I tell you then maybe there'll be something you can use, maybe it won't be too late – Ellen had nothing to do with it, Gwen approached her too and she refused – she's worth ten of me -"

"What are your powers?" Darrell, in the front seat, was speaking very carefully, but even so Alicia could feel her rage humming in the air, and Sally was leaning forward to put a hand on her shoulder.

"I can make people believe what I want them to," Daphne said. "I can make them see what I want them to. I make people think I'm wearing pretty clothes, that I can afford expensive things. I make them like me. I made you think I'd gone out of the house on the day of Sally's meeting. I stopped you even considering me a suspect. I've, I've walked into shops and taken jewellery and no one knew I'd been inside. I'm no good and I know that but Mary-Lou was kind and – oh, even this, she went out in the storm to try and find me -"

"What's Gwen going to do?" Darrell said.

But Alicia could imagine: "Remember last year, when Mary-Lou confronted her and she nearly drained the life out of her? If she's got the power to make you see whatever she wants, Mary-Lou won't see the danger until it's too late."

The car radio buzzed and sunk into static: Darrell took a deep, shaky breath. "I should get out and just run," she said, voice shaking - "we'll be stuck in traffic all the way and I'm going to ruin the car at this rate -"

"No!" Alicia suddenly knew what to do. "You should get out and run to the university – look – Irene and Belinda's rooms are only a few streets over. Go to Belinda and tell her to _draw Gwendoline_. Draw her unable to move, or, or going to the police, or – something, anything – it'll give us another half-hour – stop the car, please -"

The taxi driver, muttering, did so, and Darrell sprang out, the splash of her feet echoing for a moment before she slammed the door and disappeared into the night.

"Sally," Alicia said, as the car moved on again, "I'm sure you've been doing this already, but is Daphne telling the truth?"

"I think so," Sally said. "If she can do – what she says, though, she can probably fool me, too. She could be tricking us both right now – I'm sure that's occurred to you, too?"

Daphne, crying still, shook her head. "I promise. I promise – not this time -"

"It doesn't matter," Alicia said. "I think Mary-Lou's in danger, and your information's the only lead we've got. I only hope we get there in time."

ooo

Mary-Lou felt as if she were walking back to herself through an empty, cold land. For hours and hours it seemed like there was nothing, and the only _her_ was far, far away, a tiny dot of firelight in the darkness.

_Mary-Lou? Mary-Lou, are you all right?_

She was so tired and so cold and – something bad had happened -

_Mary-Lou, please..._

That voice. Daphne's voice. _My friend..._

Something bad had happened. Yes. She'd got off the bus and - _I'm in the porch of the old church_, Daphne had said, _it's so cold and horrid out here..._ Only the porch had been empty, whitewashed walls faintly glowing in the moonlight, dead leaves blustering across the floor. The heavy door open. She'd stepped inside. The smell of mould and rotting books and papers, a broken stained-glass window high above her, and Daphne, standing in the aisle, the dim light sucking all the colour out of her hair and face.

_I knew you'd come_, she'd said, but it wasn't grateful, it was... mocking. As if Mary-Lou were stupid to have wanted to help.

_Of course I came! I couldn't leave you stranded._

_No,_ Daphne said, and her mouth curved into a smirk. _No, because you're my __**best friend**__, aren't you? You think I'm __**wonderful**__._

Lightning making the broken window blaze white for a second. Jagged glass shape behind her eyes.

_Tell me, _Daphne said, walking towards her,_ what would you do if I said I couldn't care less about a silly, boring little mouse like you? If I was only friends with you because you've been writing me cheques and taking my turns with the housework? After all, you can't really think you've got much you can offer me._

Cold and dark and the rain pattering on the tiled floor. It was like someone had thrown a stone at her and hit her so hard she was too shocked to feel it.

_I don't,_ she said_. I don't have anything to offer._ And she didn't understand why Daphne was saying this, what she'd done wrong, but she thought that if the other girl was frightened, somehow, or angry (because this was frightening) then she, Mary-Lou, could try and help. _You're still my friend. If... if you only like me because I help you, that's all right. I like helping people._ Daphne was only a few feet away from her. _We should go home. It's too cold in here. You'll get a chill._

Daphne smiled and reached out to her and took her hand.

And then it got _really _cold. For a moment Mary-Lou thought the storm must have suddenly grown worse, but then as the dreadful dizziness spread over her she remembered the last time she'd felt like this – talking to Gwendoline – telling her what she'd worked out – and Gwen had said:

_We've been thinking that if I try hard enough, I could take everything - not just powers, everything -_

She'd thought, _so Daphne can do it too, _and then, _I was stupid to trust her, _and then, _well, I don't care..._

_She's still my friend, and I... I have to..._

And someone was clutching her hand but this time they dragged her out of the cold and the emptiness and _there_ she was back in herself, gasping for breath, cold tiles under her back, and people crowding around her, faces lit up with torchlight.

"Mary-Lou," Daphne gasped, tears running down her face. She was golden in the light. "I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead..."

Someone was helping her sit up, wrapping a blanket round her. Everyone was talking, asking her if she was all right, if she could remember who she was. _Lucky she didn't get here earlier. Call an ambulance!_

"It was Gwendoline," Daphne said, and Sally was kneeling down next to her, taking her other hand: "It was, Mary-Lou, I promise. All those things she said, that was Gwen, not Daphne." _Of course_, Mary-Lou thought, _she can hear how sad I am..._

"What did she say?" Daphne said. "Oh – I think I know. Mary-Lou, I promise, it isn't true, any of it. You're my friend, do you understand?"

"I think she means it," Alicia said, from above them. "She confessed a lot of things to us that it would've been a lot more convenient for her to keep secret, all because of you. And the attack she hit Gwen with when she ran into the church – it was amazing, quite frankly."

"It was terrifying," Sally said, shivering. "I only caught part of it and I'm still not sure whether I'm in the real world."

Daphne shuddered, clutched Mary-Lou's hand more tightly.

"She fought back," she said, numbly. "She made me see things. I saw you and you were – you were dead. I thought..."

"But it didn't matter what you thought," Alicia said, "because that must have been when the tidal wave hit. Darrell -" She turned round to look at the other girl, who had just hurried up to them, "what happened to asking Belinda to target Gwendoline?"

"Belinda's never met Gwendoline," Darrell said, rubbing a hand across her face. "We tried her drawing a girl with blonde hair from my description, but Belinda said at the time she thought it hadn't worked, that she could feel it. We didn't know what else to do, so she drew the inside of the church and water pouring through it. We thought that might at least knock everyone off-balance."

"And you're all dry now," Belinda said from behind her. "Half an hour and it disappears, just as normal."

"Yes," Alicia said. "But it wasn't much fun before that. Were the octopuses really necessary? Not to mention Gwen got away in all the chaos."

"Some people are never satisfied," Belinda said, shaking her head. "We should get Mary-Lou out of this place, anyway, it's freezing. Get you a hospital bed next to Ellen – did you hear?" she said to the others. "Irene found out today – Ellen turned up at the hospital, half-out of her mind with exhaustion, but they think with rest she'll be fine."

"Thank goodness," Daphne said, smiling shakily. "And... listen, I know that... I know you won't... I'll go to the police, I'll turn myself in for what – for everything I did. I knew things were going too far and I let them anyway -"

Mary-Lou clutched at her hand, suddenly cold again.

"Don't," she said. "I don't want you to go."

"I would have let Alicia die," Daphne said. Her fingers were chilly. "And you don't know half of what I've done. I wouldn't trust me, if I were you."

"I'm not sure I _do_ trust you," Alicia said. "But your powers are fascinating. Not to mention extremely useful. I'd rather have you on my side than in jail, or out in the world and able to make contact with Gwendoline and... anyone else she might be working with."

"I agree," Sally said. "And goodness knows agreeing with Alicia isn't something I do much." She smiled, and Alicia smiled back.

"And I've made mistakes myself," Darrell said. "Used my powers in stupid ways. I can't argue against someone else getting a second chance."

"Exactly," Belinda said. "And there's five of us against one of you. If it came down to it, we could probably win!"

Daphne stared round at them all, her eyes brimming with more tears, before she buried her face in Mary-Lou's shoulder. Mary-Lou hugged her, and the last of the cold slipped away.


	8. Chapter 8

(A/N: Thank you for the reviews, and sorry it's taken so long to update! On to the third book... I hope you like it!)

"It's certainly different from England," Darrell said.

She meant it to be cheerful, but her voice echoed across the dusty forecourt of the research facility and sounded small and lonely instead. A breeze picked up, sending sand skittering over the ground, and Mary-Lou stepped a little closer to her.

"This wretched sand," Daphne said, pulling a face. "It's going to be in my mouth and my shoes the entire time, isn't it?"

"How gloomy you two are," Alicia said, giving both of them a rather mocking smile. "You should be excited! The stuff they're getting up to here, it's unheard-of anywhere else on Earth -"

"All right for you," Irene said, clutching her split-open suitcase to her chest. "_You_ didn't have to take a sleeping pill for the entire flight. I feel like I'm still dreaming."

Darrell nodded. Not for anything would she have risked being awake in the plane – the danger of a sudden flash of anger sending them spiralling out of the sky was too great – but it did feel as if she'd woken up in a whole other life. The sky was an odd pale-lavender colour, and the horizon was a blank, empty line (although Belinda had already taken out a sketchbook).

"Don't fill it with monsters," Alicia said to her. "They're testing ways of _inhibiting_ the power here. They'll try it out on you if you're too troublesome."

"What – really?" Mary-Lou turned to stare at her. "Actually stopping people's powers? Like – like Gwen could?"

"I don't know the details," Alicia said. "That's why I wanted to come. To see what they're up to -"

"Make sure they don't use it on us?" Irene said.

"More like see if we could use it on... certain people," Alicia said, her face as blank and cool as the horizon. "It would be good to have as many resources as possible, if Gwen proves... troublesome again."

Belinda was still drawing. Darrell glanced from the paper to the expanse of desert in front of them, and then gasped. In the distance, surrounded by dust, as if called into life by Belinda's pencil, were -

"Horses?" Alicia said, shading her eyes. "It can't be."

But it was. Darrell watched them gallop closer – as they approached the facility, they wheeled round, clearly wary of the fence and the high concrete walls. But now she could see that one of the horses actually had a rider, who slid off the horse's back and sauntered towards them.

It was a girl, with cropped black hair and deep tanned skin. Her horse followed her and she kept a hand on its neck as she walked. The other animals were still keeping their distance, whinnying and snuffling in a group.

"Are you visiting?" the girl said. "You'll need a pass, or someone to let you in, or something." She walked over to the gate, typed in a code, and it slid open. Her horse whinnied sadly, and she said to it, "I know. I know, but I'll be out again soon."

The horse snorted.

"That's not true. I come whenever I can, you know that."

Darrell had spotted the ID badge round the girl's neck with a familiar emblem on it. Alicia clearly had as well, because she said, "You're part of the project? You work here?"

"Oh, I suppose so." The girl patted the horse's neck one more time and it turned and cantered off, sending up more sand from its hooves. Darrell heard Mary-Lou breathe a sigh of relief.

"Well, do you or don't you?" Alicia was saying, amused as they followed the girl through the gate.

"Thunder was saying he didn't know why I ever go back in here," the girl said. "Honestly I'd ride out with them all the time if I could – they're wild, you know – I started off by talking to them, using that to monitor their migration and their customs, how they perceive each other, and us – all of that –"

"Wait, you _talk_ to them?" Darrell said. She wondered if the girl was a little cracked in the head, but then it was hardly the oddest power she'd come across...

"Oh, yes. So my research was always to do with them but Miss Peters -"

"The centre director," Alicia said.

"Yes, that's it – Miss Peters doesn't understand that, she thinks a person should be interested in things other than horses -"

"Is it just horses you can talk to?" Irene said. "Or other things too?"

"Oh, other animals too," the girl said, shrugging as if it was hardly worth mentioning, "but really nothing else is half as interesting as horses. They understand humans, you know, they understand what we are, but they aren't worshipful like dogs or rude like cats -"

"Wilhelmina!"

Darrell looked round. The main door had swung open and two people were hurrying across towards them: a tall woman with short hair and a displeased expression, and a younger girl with cascading blonde hair which was already being whipped around by the breeze.

"What on earth do you think you're doing, letting people in through the main gate just like that?" the annoyed woman continued.

"Oh, they said they were visiting," the girl – Wilhelmina – said, shrugging again. "Or something."

Alicia quickly introduced the group. The woman – Miss Peters, Darrell realised – was still looking unimpressed, but she greeted them all with a firm handshake and a, "Good to have you with us."

"And this is our secretary, Zerelda Brass," she said at last, slightly more crisply – or perhaps Darrell was imagining it. (Sally would have known. Sally would know if this strange girl could really talk to horses, too. But Sally had stayed in England to finish up council duties, and Darrell was missing her more every minute.)

"It's just _wunnerful_ to meet you all!" Zerelda said, beaming. "I've been reading up on all of your amazing little powers. I just love everything you kids have been doing!"

"Let's not get carried away," Miss Peters said. "Zerelda, where's Mavis? Wasn't she supposed to be reviewing the latest results with you?"

"She had to go practise," Zerelda said.

"Again?"

"Well, gee, she's an _artiste_, isn't she, Miss Peters?" Zerelda said. "I mean she's got a _calling_ with that crazy voice of hers – she can hypnotise pretty much anyone when she sings," she added to the others. "And she sounds swell when she does it."

"And doesn't she know about it," Wilhelmina murmured.

"Me -" and suddenly Zerelda's face was rippling, blurring as if were seen through water, and Darrell blinked, and when she looked again Wilhelmina was standing there, but the voice and the pose were the same as before: "Me, I'm a shapeshifter. I can be pretty much anyone if I put my mind to it!"

"You'd be a lot better at being me if you bothered to listen to how I talk," Wihelmina said, scowling. "Or stand. Or anything, really. Do change back, I hate it when you do this."

"That's enough," Miss Peters said, and Zerelda did change back, smiling a little. "Let's go inside. We've got a lot to discuss."

Darrell was about to follow the others inside, but noticed Wilhelmina was hanging back, looking out at the horses. As the door closed, she took a deep breath, pressed her lips together, and then saw Darrell looking and gave her a wry smile.

"It always feels like the last goodbye ever," she said. "I don't feel like me when I'm not with them. Oh – please don't call me Wilhelmina, by the way. Nobody does except Miss Peters – everyone else calls me Bill."

Darrell smiled – she could see why.

"I hope you'll like it here," Bill said. "I do, because of the horses, and Zerelda and Mavis spend all their time looking in the mirror and listening to themselves, but I think some people find it a bit odd. I suppose you've got your friends here, though, so you'll be all right."

"I hope so," Darrell said. She'd meant to say _I'm sure we will_. She must still be a little tired from all the travelling.

ooo

Alicia was rarely tired, but today she kicked closed the door of the tiny room and then flopped onto the bed with a sigh. The sheets were crisp and smelt of starch and steam. Above her, a tiny window showed her a square of white-blue sky and absolutely nothing else.

A knock on the door. Alicia quickly sat up, but it was only Darrell sticking her head round: "Are you busy?"

"No, do come in." As Darrell closed the door behind her, Alicia allowed herself to say, "I was enjoying _not_ being around certain people, but you're not one of them."

"Glad to hear it!" Darrell said, coming to perch on the only chair in the room. "And who were you trying to avoid?"

"I'm not going out of my way to _avoid_ anyone," Alicia said, widening her eyes in mock innocence. "I've had a very interesting morning discussing the latest findings and the development of the inhibition technology – it really is fascinating, Darrell – but it would be a jolly sight more enjoyable if I didn't have to listen to Mavis and Zerelda talking about their showbusiness careers."

Darrell laughed, shaking her head. "They really are something else, aren't they? I wouldn't have expected to find either of them in a scientific research facility. Or a desert, for that matter."

"I don't think Mavis wants to find herself here either." Alicia sprawled back on the bed, directed her annoyance to the ceiling tiles. "If I hear one more word about _when I'm an opera singer and go to New York and Rome and Paris_... I think it's ridiculous Zerelda puts on full make-up for a day of typing and Letraset but at least she can laugh about things. Even if she does think she's _just wunnerful_."

"She thinks we're _wunnerful_, too," Darrell said. "Though I think she's as baffled by us as we are by her."

"Well, I'll tell you who _doesn't_ think that," Alicia said, "and that's Miss Peters. Don't I wish _she_ would laugh about things! But no – I think she's at the end of her tether with Zerelda, and Mavis – and Bill – golly, she must have asked me three times today whether I was sure Bill had gone to make coffee or whether she'd sneaked out to find those horses – and I wouldn't mind but she certainly doesn't think much of _me_, either. You can see it when she talks to me."

"She's probably just annoyed with them and it's rubbing off," Darrell said. "Being stuck in here with the same people would make anyone cross. No wonder Bill keeps going out to the horses."

Alicia did rather wish Darrell would say something sharper – having to guard her tongue day in day out was making her crave a little spitefulness – but on the other hand, the girl's directness was refreshing. At least Darrell saw things as they really were.

"And it's a funny place all round, really," she was carrying on now. "Sand under your teeth all the time, and no change in the weather... and it's so quiet. I couldn't sleep the first night because it was so silent."

Alicia nodded. "I never thought I'd miss English rain!"

"Zerelda said the storms _really are a sight_." Darrell stretched out her legs a little. "It's dangerous to go out in them, I think – lightning everywhere."

"Maybe we'll get to see one," Alicia said. "It sounds like it would be exciting, at least."

Darrell paused for a second, then, turning away to tap one foot against the desk, said, "Do... do you think the things they're working on – do you think they'll actually do what – what they say?"

"What, shut down people's powers?"

Darrell nodded. She still wasn't looking at Alicia.

"You know I've worked hard not to just – snap," she said, her voice so light that Alicia knew she was putting it on. "I'd feel jolly odd if they made something that could just... take away the danger altogether."

"Well, they haven't got there yet." Alicia wanted to say – well, no, she didn't _want_ to, but she could feel it sitting at the back of her mouth – how ambivalent she was about the idea of someone being able to take away her healing powers. Oh, she didn't take stupid risks, but -

"I should watch out, shouldn't I?" she said, matching her lightness of voice to Darrell's. "If Gwendoline ever got her hands on it, she'd jump at the chance to make me normal and push me off a bridge or something."

Darrell turned to look at her again. "Makes you glad they have it all behind fences and walls. Alicia... what do you think's happened to Gwen?"

"Happened to her? Probably not a lot. I imagine she's still out there, still thinking up nasty little schemes, still sure she's queen of the universe."

"Daphne said she talked about... someone else she was working with."

"Yes," Alicia said, "but isn't she just the type to pretend she's part of some secret organisation?" She wasn't going to start thinking about all of _that_, too, not when she already felt so on edge. "And really, we can't do anything unless she does show her face again. We're gathering all the information about this technology ourselves, now. Hopefully that will stop her being able to spring any unpleasant surprises."

Darrell nodded and smiled, and if it wasn't a particularly convincing smile at least it was an attempt.

"I can't wait til Sally comes," she said. "I bet she'll find all of this as fascinating as you do!"

Alicia had always been personally able to do without Sally's company, but Darrell had just listened to her complaining, so she grinned and nodded. "Let's go and find some lunch. Maybe we can get to the canteen before Mavis shows up."


	9. Chapter 9

Zerelda missed many things about back home – diners on the next corner rather than hundreds of miles away, cute little stores you could go to at lunchtime, make-up counters – but the worst thing about this place was how gloomy all the rooms were.

"I mean I tried to jazz it up a little," she said, leaning over to the mirror and pinching her hair to get the curl back into it, "but there's only so much you can do when all the walls are grey. I wanted to put lights round the mirror – like a real movie star dressing room, you know? - but that Miss Peters said it'd be a waste of electricity."

Next to her, Gwendoline smiled.

"I think it must be _awfully_ difficult for someone as creative as you to stand it out here, in such a miserable place," she said.

"Aw, gee, that's so sweet of you to say!" Zerelda reached for her lipstick. "But I do all right. Whenever I get some holiday I go buy something to make it a little less gloomy – like I got that adorable little coverlet last time, and the pink lamp the time before that – and the pay's good, you know? I'm making myself a little nest-egg and then when the time comes I'm gonna fly away to Hollywood." She sighed happily, thinking about it. They would go bananas over an actress who could not only _act_ but actually put on the face of whoever she was gonna play. Just wait...!

"You won't miss any of them?" Gwen said, picking up a perfume bottle and absently spraying a little onto her wrist.

"Ah, they're a good crowd really," Zerelda said, feeling sort of mean now. "But so serious. Mavis'd be all right but she does talk about her singing a lot – but you know, she's an artist too, so I guess I understand!"

"_I_ understand," Gwen said. She smiled, bravely. "It's really good of you to hide me here like this, Zerelda. You promise you won't tell the others?"

"Hey, I promised hand on heart, didn't I?" Zerelda smiled back at the other girl in the mirror. "Though I'm sure they'd be okay with it if they knew. Lotsa pretty girls come this way trying to make their fortune, and you know, they'd be real interested in that power you got -"

"No!" Gwen clutched at Zerelda's arm. "No, you mustn't. I couldn't stand it if they... did _tests_ on me. What if they took it away? It's all I have!"

"Hey, hey, it's all right! I said I wouldn't tell and I'm not gonna tell." She thought of the first time she'd seen Gwendoline, standing bedraggled and beautiful in the bus terminal, a battered suitcase by her feet. _People are after me. I need somewhere to hide. Can't you...?_ It'd been so like a movie Zerelda had almost looked round for the hunk with a heart of gold and a fedora. But there'd only been her, and what else could she have said but, _I'm heading on back to work, and let me tell you, no one'll find you there..._

And hadn't it been pretty funny, sharing her powers with Gwen and seeing her morph into another Zerelda? And getting one over on Miss Peters, who really ought to stop lecturing Zerelda on her daydreaming and the way she wore her hair?

(Actually for a moment the other-Zerelda-part hadn't been so funny, and she'd almost got why Bill got so mad, but that'd been silly and she'd forgotten it the next second.)

"Do you think – do you think they're going to switch it on soon? That thing you were talking about?" Gwen had picked up some nail polish now. "I don't want to be here when that happens..."

"Not any time soon. Miss Peters reckons it'll short out if we try now. You're fine for a good couple of weeks. We just need to make sure they don't work out there's two of us, huh?" She winked. Gwen smiled, and started painting her thumbnail.


	10. Chapter 10

Sally had expected the silence and the emptiness – Darrell's letters had warned her – but when she stood at the front gate of the facility the lack of noise rang in her ears so loudly that for a moment she thought she might faint.

Because Darrell had never known what it was like to grow up with other people's thoughts whispering in your ears. By now it was almost comforting: the mumble of the neighbours falling asleep; the flicker of the postman working out his route. So _this_ \- this silence, this nothingness of no people, no shop girls, no car drivers -

She took a deep breath and by the time the gates and the main door were open and she was walking inside, she had almost got herself back under control. And there was no shortage of people _inside_ the building. Darrell hugged her, her thoughts echoing her cries of, "I'm so glad you're here! I missed you so much!" Alicia smiled, thinly, and Sally pretended not to notice the whisper of [even Sally will make this place a little more bearable]. Belinda and Mary-Lou and Daphne and Irene crowded round her and their thoughts said, over and over, [this place is still so odd] [so good to see someone from home!] [maybe now Sally's here we can take a few days off] [go to town] [find something new to draw] [I'm tired of sand] [I'm tired of no clouds] [I'm tired of _desert_]

Which wasn't exactly cheering, but at least they did find it as odd as her.

And then there were the people she hadn't met. Miss Peters, nodding curtly to her and thinking [at least she doesn't look as feather-headed as some of the others]. Bill, smiling and saying it was lovely to meet her but with a head filled with horses galloping across the sand and so much yearning that Sally felt tears sting her own eyes for a second. Zerelda: [aw, gee, she looks like – what do they call them, bluestockings? She's just _wunnerful_!] Mavis, thoughts echoing her words almost exactly as she said, "They've probably told you about me – I'm the opera singer -"

"Let me show you around," Darrell said, grabbing Sally's hand and racing down the nearest corridor.

"Gosh, yes," Alicia said, [not going to stand around like a lemon with Miss Peters and the drama group, thank you]. "Let's go and look at the main control room, that really is a sight."

Sally tried not to think that it would have been nicer just her and Darrell. They walked through door after door, white-painted swing doors that hissed when you let them close, circles of glass set in them showing nothing but more corridor. She could feel the chatter of everyone else, and as Alicia and Darrell talked she was able to match up the thoughts with the names, to laugh and agree that Bill really did sound horse-mad, that yes, Mavis _had_ introduced herself that way -

[Where's that idiot got to? Honestly, this place is so boring -]

She frowned - _that_ was a new voice, that didn't match -

"Here," Alicia said, typing in a code on a metal door, "this is what they're working on. Or trying to, anyway." They stepped into a large room filled with banks of computers, blinking lights, spools of card and tape, and, in the centre, a giant mass from floor to ceiling that made Sally think of the huddle of wires you saw on telegraph poles and the cluster of metal and vents at the back of a refrigerator.

"Is that it?" she said. "The... inhibitor?"

"That's it." Alicia was quietly proud as if she'd built the thing herself. "Bit of a monster, isn't it?" [Don't want to be anywhere near it when it's turned on] [not that _she_ needs to know – oh, bother]. And a quick glance of irritation. [Would be good to know she wasn't _listening_ all the time]

Sally would have tried _not_ to listen – she knew it was just that the silence of the desert was making her sensitive to every little feeling – but really, Alicia hadn't had to invite herself along just now, had she?

"Well, it all looks very... technical," she said, feeling her voice harden in her throat. "But you say it doesn't actually _do_ anything right now?"

"Not yet," Darrell said. "At least, that's what you said, isn't it, Alicia? Unless things have changed in the last few hours!"

"No, it's not active yet," Alicia said. "But we're getting there. Don't worry, Sally, you didn't come out here for nothing. We should be able to put on quite a good show."

"I suppose that's one way of putting it," Sally said, and she knew she was trying hard _not_ to seem impressed and she should probably be ashamed about it, but Alicia was pleased enough with herself for the both of them.

"I should have remembered you're not really part of the research side of things," Alicia said, her thoughts all needles and pins now. "Darrell, why don't we show her the canteen or something?"

Darrell was frowning – [why are they both so crotchety?] [tired from the journey?] [Alicia didn't like this place anyway] but she nodded: "Yes, you must be hungry, Sally."

They went out by a different door and through so many corridors that Sally was sure she was going to spend all her time here completely lost. _Especially if Darrell is going to spend all **her** time with Alicia_, her thoughts added. She tried to ignore them, but she couldn't stop thinking it. After all, the two of them had clearly been doing so up until now, hadn't they? She was creeping back into other people's thoughts, immersing herself in _their_ feelings, which she _knew_ she only did when she was feeling jealous and stupid, but she was tired and she had a headache and Alicia was being insufferable. So. So there was Alicia, humming away about [Sally is being so childish] and [maybe it won't be meatloaf for lunch, I'm so bored of that] and some question about equations and catalysts and conductors underneath it. There was Darrell, joyful that Sally was here but still puzzled about why everyone was so grumpy and faint continuous engine-like rattle of [when they switch that thing on, if it works, if it takes my powers away, does that just make me] [what does that make me] [am I normal or just]

And further away, there was [gee, Miss Peters sure does go on about nothing] [what does it even matter if] and [ridiculous, how am I supposed to complete an initiative this complex when I can't depend on any of my staff] [if Wilhelmina's playing truant _again_] [I'll take it out of her pay if] and [when I'm an opera singer I shan't see any of these people ever again] -

And beyond that, [there's a storm coming, Thunder knows] [he's scared] [I'm scared too] [I wish they'd never come here] [Miss Peters won't notice if I'm just gone for a few minutes]

And [jolly well wish I could just go for a walk] [probably get lost, though] [maybe Belinda could draw us a car? No, I'd only make it break down], and Belinda's thoughts echoing, [if I drew us some rain would anyone guess? Or some shops] [a cafe! Irene would like that]

And

[just wait] [just _wait_ til it happens] [serve them all right] [especially that pig Alicia]

She stopped, and a particularly pointed [she could at least_ talk_ a little] from Alicia glanced off her mind, and she lost the other voice. But it had sounded like -

She gritted her teeth and listened harder, and all of the voices swept in at once (she was picking up Mary-Lou and Daphne now, too, over on the far side of the complex – Mary-Lou frightened of horses and storms, Daphne dreaming of pretty clothes and streetlights) and Alicia's scorn was almost deafening - "_Listen_," she muttered, "_There_ -" and Alicia retorted [she's so attention-seeking] [can she really not bear Darrell to talk to someone else?] and -

[they mustn't know I'm here]

"Something's wrong," she said. It felt funny, using her mouth to talk, hearing sounds rather than thoughts. "Someone's... going to do something bad. Someone who shouldn't be here."

Alicia thought, [oh, for goodness sake -] but Darrell was frowning: "Who? You can hear them? What are they saying?"

"Something's going to happen." She'd lost the voice again now – it was too hard to talk and to listen. "They want to hurt us."

"Gwendoline?" Darrell said, more quietly.

"I think we'd know if she were hiding in a cupboard somewhere," Alicia said, rolling her eyes.

"Well... not if she'd taken Zerelda's powers," Darrell said. "She could be walking around as one of us and we wouldn't guess. This place is – is big enough you could avoid running into the person you were meant to be."

Alicia bit her lip, and Sally could both see and hear her realising the truth of that.

"We're not telling Miss Peters," she said, at last. "She'd think we were insane. Gosh – if we even knew we were speaking to her and not Gwendoline."

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Darrell was pale, glancing around as she spoke. "We can't trust anyone. Not even -" A quick, nervous look at Alicia, and [what if she's]

"It's all right," Sally said, hastily. "That really is Alicia. I can tell." _Gwen's spitefulness is much less obvious_, she wanted to say, even though that was spiteful in itself and not even true. "I'll keep my eyes open – I'll keep listening. If I can identify the culprit, then... that tells us something."

Darrell was nodding. Sally saw Alicia look from one to the other of them, and then there was a glint of irritation and then:

"If this person – Gwen – if they're scheming to hurt us, isn't it a little risky to trust everything to that?"

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" Sally said, just managing not to snap it. "We can't co-ordinate a search of this place – it's huge. Particularly not if we're keeping this a secret from Miss Peters. We'd need to do it systematically, otherwise the shapeshifter would just be able to turn into someone else and sneak out -"

"That's not what I'm thinking of doing," Alicia said. "Don't be ridiculous, Sally." [This will be amazing] [Of course she wants to control it all herself] [That's not going to happen!] "What we'll do is... we'll activate the inhibitor early."

"I thought you said it doesn't work."

"The technology _itself_ should work. It's maintaining it that's the issue. But that's not important. We just need to ensure everyone's in the one room, activate it, and see who stops... being themselves."

"And if Gwendoline is hiding in someone's bedroom? Or a storeroom somewhere?" Sally could hear the scorn in her own voice, but – Alicia's thoughts were practically _shouting_ how this would show Sally and Miss Peters both – _you didn't hear, _Sally wanted to yell at her, _you didn't hear how malevolent those thoughts were – you think this is a game, a trick -_

"We'll set off the fire alarm as well," Alicia said. "The whole facility goes onto emergency power. Red lights. Sprinkler system. If it is Gwendoline, there's no way she'll be brave enough to bluff it out. We use that to chase her into the open, and then we switch on the machine."

Darrell was nodding. Sally wanted to shake them both.

"That's a terrible idea," she said, and really, how could they both be so stupid? "We have absolutely no way of ensuring Gwen will make a run for it – or that she won't be able to flee the building if she does – and Miss Peters will be furious, especially if that thing's never been switched on before. What on earth are you thinking?"

Except she knew the answer to that. Darrell was [but it might work] [we have to try] [and if she's in here with us she could do anything] [already tried to kill Mary-Lou twice]. Alicia -

[typical]

Alicia said, pityingly, "I do think you shouldn't reject it just because it's my idea, Sally."

Sally felt sick with fury and she was opening her mouth to argue when Darrell's thoughts sighed, and [oh...]

[She's jealous? I didn't realise]

And then it was just like before when she was nothing but coldness and shame and hearing people hate her.

"Do what you want," she heard the, the _nothing_ say. "I'll keep listening for clues. And if this all blows up in your face, don't blame me."

And then she was walking away, because she was afraid if she didn't she might start crying.


	11. Chapter 11

Darrell knew she should be _glad_ to finally be leaving this place. Wasn't it what she'd wanted all along? But as she dragged her suitcase (still speckled with patches of sand) out from under the little bed, she kept swallowing, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat.

Part of this, she thought, was shock at just how...

(dead)

(wrong)

How _tired_ the hum of the inhibitor had made her feel. Tired, and squashed, as if something were lying on top of her, pushing her to the ground. And perhaps where she would normally be angry, it had squashed her enough that she was sad instead?

But that was the other problem - that really, who could she be angry with except herself? The machines had hummed for only a few seconds and then suddenly in the red light there'd been a burst of smoke and sparks and horrible, burnt-out silence. She should have known there'd be a reason that it wasn't working yet. She should have guessed that Alicia was gambling, because that was what Alicia did.

She should have listened to Sally.

She bit her lip, tried to focus on the clothes she was attempting to fold up, tried to pretend they weren't blurring as she looked at them. She'd made Sally sad. And it had all been for nothing.

A gentle knock on the door. Darrell blinked, tried to smile as she called. But when Sally looked round the door and looked so sorry and worried, the smile broke up anyway.

"Oh, Darrell..." And Sally hurried in and knelt down next to her and hugged her. "Oh, don't be sad. You were trying to do the best you could."

"I... I really wasn't," Darrell managed to say. "It was a stupid plan. I should have known, shouldn't I?"

Sally kindly didn't say _Yes_ to that.

"I went to talk to Miss Peters," she said. "I wanted to explain in case - in case she didn't realise what was going on."

"Do you think she believed you?"

"I don't know. She said there wasn't anything we could do right now, not with everything in such chaos. Bill tried to wander off, go and find the horses..." Sally frowned. "She was really upset, she said she forgot how to talk to them. So there was a row over that. And Mavis had a fight with Alicia. She was screaming at her for _endangering her voice_, she tried to insist she wouldn't stay here either."

"But they are still here?"

"Miss Peters reminded Mavis about the storm warning, and she - well, she told Bill she would fire her if she left the building now. Goodness knows what she'll do, though. Her thoughts were... boiling away. Everyone's were, really."

"Did you hear..." Darrell almost didn't want to say the name. "Did you hear Gwendoline in any of it?"

"No, but you know she could always mute herself from me. If she knows I'm here, she's probably making even more of an effort to."

_And what we did has only put her more on guard_. Darrell didn't need Sally to spell it out.

"You told Miss Peters it was all your idea," Sally said after a few moments. "Oh – don't worry, I didn't drop Alicia in it, but -"

Darrell felt herself blushing, tried to cover it by grabbing up handfuls of clothes. "I just – Alicia actually works in – it doesn't matter to me if Miss Peters thinks I'm an idiot, it's not important me getting sent home, whereas Alicia, with her research... And..." She stopped, the words too heavy on her tongue. _And I deserve to be the one in trouble, after how I treated you._ She stopped but she realised Sally must have heard, or at least got an echo of it. She started to fold the clothes up. Sally was blushing, too, but she just put her hand over Darrell's to stop her packing. "Wait a little. You can't leave until the storm's passed anyway, and maybe Miss Peters will have calmed down by then."

"I don't think that'll happen. And she's jolly well within her rights to kick me out, I could've... blown the whole building up or something."

Sally shook her head. "Anyone could see how sorry you were, and I think she knows who -" She stopped for a second. "Why don't you come out to the recreation room? Everyone's worried about you."

Darrell had felt almost too embarrassed to face anyone, but Sally's calm, gentle voice was a way to believe everything was more or less all right. She nodded, got to her feet. As they walked down the corridor, the thought flew into her mind that what if this _wasn't_ Sally? What if it were Gwen? But it seemed such a silly idea. How could the girl next to her be anyone else?

Sally looked round at her. "It's hard to believe, isn't it? That someone could just... be someone else like that."

Darrell nodded. "At least with Zerelda, she's so bad at acting. Whereas Gwen might not be much better, but she'd know us well enough to pull it off." She shivered. "But... you can hear my thoughts. I know it's really you."

Sally glanced out at the sky, which was half white, half covered in hot grey clouds. "You say that, but do we know Gwen can't display two sets of powers at once?"

Darrell actually almost tripped over her feet, the shock of what that could mean was so great. "I – I don't know. Alicia might, perhaps?"

She was glad, now, that Sally had proposed they go to other people.

And Gwen wouldn't have pointed that out just now – would've let Darrell go on thinking she were safe. Of course, it could be a double-bluff, but once you started thinking like that you'd end up going mad.

The recreation room was a small place – squashed between all the labs and computer banks, Darrell had thought, as if whoever built the facility had only remembered at the last second that people needed time away from work. It was painted a rather desperate shade of yellow, and had a record player, a little television which rarely picked up any signal, several sun-faded books left behind by previous employees, and two musty, angular sofas the colour of pencil lead. Right now Belinda was sitting by the window drawing the luminous sky, Irene was sorting through the records, and Mary-Lou and Daphne were sitting on the sofa eyeing the weather nervously.

"You found her!" Irene cheered as they entered. "Darrell, come and put on this record for me. The last thing we need is me destroying the only source of amusement in this place."

"Where's Alicia?" Darrell said. "And Mavis and Zerelda and Bill, for that matter?" She didn't bother asking about Miss Peters, who had never been seen anywhere near this room.

"Alicia's talking to Miss Peters," Irene said, pulling a wry face. "I think she's trying to save your bacon. I don't know about the others. Mavis is probably still sulking about _almost losing her voice -_"

"Zerelda went off to practise some audition piece," Belinda said, looking round, tapping her pencil against her lips. "Bill, I don't know. I jolly well hope she didn't go out looking for those horses. Just _look_ at that sky."

"Darrell," Mary-Lou said, nervously, from behind them, "you said that... that you thought Gwen was somewhere around here. Do... do you really think she's..."

"Sally said it sounded like her," Darrell said. She turned to look round at the others, made herself wonder if anyone was wearing a mask, silently hating all of them behind it. "She heard someone's thoughts – someone who was angry with all of us, especially Alicia – and who didn't match up with anyone who _should_ be here."

"But surely if she was here, and she'd swiped Zerelda's powers," Irene said, "she'd be taking every opportunity to play mean tricks. Making everyone think the others hate them, being spiteful... you know what she's like. And it would help her stay undetected."

"Not necessarily." Sally had walked over to the window; she stared out at the sky, the odd hot light glinting in her eyes. "Not if she's got something more important to do."

"Like what?"

"Snooping," Belinda said. "Working out what this place can do. Anyone with a power who's done bad things would want to know that. Whether we can lock them up and take it away."

"And she wasn't working alone, before," Daphne said, staring down at her hands. "Whoever her... her accomplice was, _they_ might want her to do something. And have told her not to waste time on silly tricks in the meantime."

"So what do we do?" Irene said. "Just wait for her to... actually pull off whatever it is?"

"Keep together, I suppose," Sally said. "Keep an eye on each other. Which is pretty horrible, I know, but none of us can completely trust anyone right now."

"Gosh, that's a bit pessimistic."

Darrell looked round to see Alicia sauntering into the room. As their eyes met the other girl gave her a rueful smile, and said, "You should know Miss Peters does at least think we're not lunatics. I explained to her what a piece of work Gwen is and why... well, why desperate measures seemed like they were needed."

Which was probably as close to an apology as you were likely to get from Alicia, so Darrell gave her a sort-of smile back.

"Anyway," Alicia said, wandering over to the television set, "she pointed out it was pretty pointless to start interrogating everyone, not least because for all we know, _she_ could be Gwen. I think as soon as the storm's passed, she'll probably send us North Tower lot away – at least that reduces the number of suspects. Then she can keep an eye on her own staff."

"I wouldn't fancy it," Irene said. "Wandering around in this big place when there's only four of you plus someone who can literally suck the life out of you? No thanks."

"Aren't you awfully disappointed?" Mary-Lou said. "That we have to leave?"

"I'm hoping we – or at least I – can come back, if we track Gwen down." Alicia had switched on the television: she turned the dial from channel to channel, the hiss of static on each half-drowning out her words. "But I don't think I'll miss _being_ here. We can all stay in town, with less sand and more ice cream parlours."

It was a tempting thought, but it felt like a dream to Darrell. Throughout the evening, no matter how hard she tried to picture real life and shops and wandering down sunny streets, there were only the walls around her and the steadily darkening sky. After dinner she went back to her room, tried to decide whether to carry on packing. Sally stayed for a while, but when she had gone off to bed Darrell couldn't face trying to sleep. She knew she would spend all night listening for things she couldn't hear. She sat looking out of the window for a while, wondering when the storm would hit. Eddies of sand were spilling across the ground.

The horses were there again, cantering around on the other side of the fence, manes and tails whipping in the wind. Darrell leant forward to see if Bill had gone out to meet them, but there was no sign of her.

But there was someone there. Miss Peters – dressed in a heavy coat and holding a torch, clearly in the middle of checking the gates were sound or that nothing would be blown away – stood by the fence, watching the horses. As Darrell watched, she reached out to stroke Thunder's nose through the fence. It was just possible to make out a smile on her face, her lips moving.

Darrell found herself looking away, as if she'd been caught spying. When she did glance up again, Miss Peters had walked on down to the end of the forecourt, and the horses were already galloping away.

At eleven-thirty she was just about to start getting ready for bed – she could hardly stay up all night – when the storm started. A crash of thunder that seemed to shake the floor, and then, after a few minutes, the hiss of rain.

"No point in trying to sleep now," Darrell said to herself, rather relieved.

She wasn't going to admit to herself that she kept wondering if someone on the other side of the door was waiting for her. It was just that sitting in one room waiting for nothing was tiresome. She would walk around for a bit and make herself tired.

Outside, the corridor flickered on and off as the lightning flashed. Poor Mary-Lou would probably be cowering under the covers right now. Darrell had never been scared of storms. They'd always made her feel less of a terrible person. When nature got angry, it just happened, and lightning could destroy far more than she could. She turned the corner, glanced through the glass panel in the door at the inhibitor black against the sky. If it had existed ten years ago, say, then perhaps she might never have hurt her sister the way she did. Perhaps she would be a completely different person by now.

_But I'd never have met Alicia and the others. I'd never have... found my way back to things._ Say what you like, it had to be better to make peace with your mistakes and the dangers you posed rather than just letting someone else take them out of you. She thought so, anyway -

Running footsteps.

She pressed herself back against the wall, suddenly cold all over, even as she told herself someone up to no good wouldn't be dashing down the corridor like this. "Who's there?"

Stumbling out of another burst of lightning was Bill. She was trembling, tears starting in her eyes. "Oh, Darrell – something terrible's happened to Thunder -"

"What? How do you know?"

"I can hear it," Bill said. "I can hear them all, they're crying, and he's calling out for me and he can't speak properly. I think – I think he's dying and I want to come and find them but – it's too loud and I can't think -"

"You can't go out in this weather," Darrell began, but Bill was shaking her head fiercely: "I have to. I know it seems ridiculous to you, but – if it were your friend, or your mother or father or something – if you knew they were hurt, you'd go to them, wouldn't you?"

Put like that, Darrell couldn't argue – and Bill was so upset, how could she?

"Come with me," she said. "I'll help you. I'll come with you. But we can't just walk out there. We... we'll need help."

Taking a deep breath, she led the way to Miss Peters's room.

ooo

Alicia was dreaming of horses cantering down a street while she sat in a cafe eating ice cream. At first she thought the thumping sound was hooves on hot ground, then she thought it must be the storm, then – as she swam fully back into real life and the lightning flickering on the ceiling, she realised someone was knocking frantically on the door.

"Who is it?" she called, reaching for the bedside light, and the door flew open and Zerelda hurried inside. (At least, someone who looked like Zerelda. Alicia sat up a little straighter, just in case she did need to move quickly.)

"What do you want?" she said, trying not to yawn. Her watch, lying next to the lamp, said it was half-past midnight.

Zerelda was very pale, her face held still like she was trying to pretend everything was fine.

"So I think I sorta made a mistake," she said.

Alicia rubbed her eyes, trying to wake herself up. Why was Zerelda coming to her with this? She would be the first to admit she wasn't the kind of person people confessed things to.

"All right," she said. "What?"

Zerelda took a deep breath, her mouth trembling a little. She wasn't wearing her usual lipstick and blusher, but, Alicia noticed, she was still in her day clothes and didn't look as if she'd hurriedly got dressed again.

"So your pal Gwendoline... she's been here all along," she said.

Alicia was torn between shock that Gwen really _had_ been right under their noses, irritation that Zerelda could have been such an idiot as not to mention this, and triumph that she'd proved Miss Peters wrong, at least.

"Go on," she said, keeping her voice level.

"I met her at the bus terminal. She said she needed somewhere to hide, so I brought her here. Snuck her in. I... I thought she was my friend."

"She's like that," Alicia said. "Where is she now?" If Zerelda said _Right here in front of you_ and her features melted into those of Gwen -

But Zerelda only took another breath, pressed a hand to her mouth, clearly trying very hard not to cry, and said, "I don't know. See... what happened was... okay, you saw Mavis at dinner, right?"

"Yes."

"I went to her room after. Wanted to talk to her, see if she'd calmed down. I know you all were thinking she was crazy the way she yelled at you, but I figured I understood. I figured it's scary thinking you'll lose your gift. When you're an _artiste_."

She smiled, sadly.

"She wasn't there. I went back to mine, said to Gwen Mavis had disappeared and... Gwen told me she'd... she'd been me, encouraged Mavis to high-tail it outta here before something else happened to her voice."

"What – in the storm?"

"It hadn't started then. Mavis had gone before dinner, that was Gwen you saw. But sure, I was... I asked Gwen what she thought she was playing at, I said it was dangerous. And she... she'd always been so nice and she turned mean. Way more mean than you. She... said a lot of stuff to me. I guess you could say, she literally held a mirror up. Boy, you must've all been laughing at me, all this time.

"Anyway," she carried on, rubbing a hand across one eye, "I think she knocked me out. She took my hand and I woke up on the floor. So now I don't know where she is. And I went to look for Miss Peters and she's not here either, and nor's Bill. So I don't know what's happened but I don't think it's good."

Alicia scrambled out of bed, taking care not to turn her back on Zerelda. "No, I don't think it is either." Her heart was thumping and she took the time to grab up a jumper and pull it on over her pyjamas because for the first time in years she was feeling _vulnerable_. "All right. Let's -"

A huge clap of thunder drowned out her voice and then on the end of it she heard – the same sound from earlier in the day -

"The inhibitor," Zerelda gasped. "Someone's switched it on -"

They were both running now, down the corridor, towards the main lab, but even as they went Alicia could feel her skin tingling all over, as if it were newly healed. Earlier, this had only happened for a few seconds before the fuse had blown, but now the hum grew louder and louder, buzzing behind her eyes, and she felt her hair crackle and twitch as if the lightning had found its way into the building.

The others were hurrying out of their rooms now – Mary-Lou clinging to Daphne's arm; Irene looking oddly calm as if she weren't quite awake; Belinda rubbing her eyes; Sally wide-eyed, glancing quickly from one to the other. No Bill. No Darrell. No Miss Peters.

"What's happening?" Belinda gasped. "I feel... I can't think..."

Alicia didn't bother stopping to explain. She ran for the lab door, shoved it open, trying not to think _if someone hurt me now, would it actually stick for once?_

She took one step over the threshold, and -

The lightning flashed again and the thunder struck so loud that it left her ears ringing -

There was a blonde figure standing by the machine, _glowing_, one hand held out as if she were trying to keep something away from her -

Alicia took another step forward and cried out as the charge in the room shoved her backwards – she could taste blood and she wasn't a coward but her skin felt like it would lift itself off her bones -

And then (thank goodness) there was another loud bang and the smell of smoke, and the blonde girl dropped to the floor. Alicia felt the force vanish, but it was like it had been holding her up – she swayed and then she was slumping backwards against Mary-Lou, who'd come to catch her. Someone – Zerelda – had grabbed a torch, and its beam slid slowly, nervously, over the lab. The thunder and lightning had stopped, and everything was very quiet.


	12. Chapter 12

"I was so stupid," Mavis said, her voice little more than a croak.

Zerelda brought over the cups of tea, sat down next to the bed. "No, you weren't. She was tricking you. Heck, I'm the dumb one, if you thought it made sense for me to tell you to do something as crazy as go out in that weather."

Mavis shook her head. "I thought I... had to protect my voice. I thought that was -" She stopped, the deep rusty cough swallowing her words for a moment. "I thought that was what was most important. That no one else here understood, when... really I was the one who didn't understand things..."

"I didn't understand much either," Zerelda said. "It's my fault alla this happened, right? But... I thought she was okay. I thought... well, I guess I thought I was in a movie."

She wanted to tell Mavis everything Gwen had said, how her face had slipped into Zerelda's own and she'd put her head on one side and said, in a mocking drawl, _gee, aren't I just wunnerful? Look at me, this is how I play Juliet..._ She thought if she got it out of her head, it might hurt less. But Mavis was so pale and sunken-eyed she couldn't start putting all her thoughts on her, so instead she just said, "I just sure am glad Miss Peters and the others found you."

Mavis nodded. "So... they'd gone out looking for the horses? In the storm?"

"You know what that Bill is like. And the others reckoned, you know how Daphne can make people see what she wants them to? They think Gwen swiped that and made Bill hear stuff. 'Cause Thunder was fine when they did track down the herd. Gwen just wanted her outta the way while she snooped."

She grinned as she sipped her tea. "You oughta see how Bill's changed her tune, though! She said she owes Miss Peters big for listening to her, taking the jeep out there to find the horses. I thought she was gonna quit, run away and live wild with 'em, but now I reckon she'll stick it out here, start doing what Miss Peters wants -"

"And visit Thunder after work hours!" Mavis said, and laughed, though it turned into a cough again. When she could speak, she said, "What about you – are you staying here?"

"I don't reckon so. I don't... I don't trust me round fancy scary stuff like this. Maybe I'll go see if I can be an ice cream girl at the cinema. Or sell tickets at the theatre. I reckon that could be kinda fun." The smell of popcorn, the murmur of plays beyond the walls, being in a real place again with people all around. "You'd get to meet the stars!"

"I think you should. I think you'd like that." Mavis glanced down at her tea, blew on it. "Alicia said I was welcome to come back with them, if I wanted. I think it's mainly she wants to see what losing the... the way my power manifests does to its abilities, but... I might go. Being somewhere different sounds... nice, right now."

"I hear you."

"Is Gwendoline going to be all right?" Mavis said. "It can't have done her any good, being so close to that thing."

"Well, she's still alive and all. Been sleeping a lot, as I hear it. They dunno what she's done to her powers, though. And I guess they'll want to ask her why she did it all. What she was gonna do to the inhibitor, why she switched it on."

"Well, she was us." Mavis took a tiny sip of tea. "I think it sounds like she didn't understand a lot, either. So it makes sense. I think... I think we've got more to come back to, though. Don't you think? It might be nice to learn how... not to be... exceptional."

"Hey, at least you _were_ exceptional. I'm just seeing what's really there." She didn't say that this morning she'd stood in front of the mirror – the mirror which still didn't have lights round it – and shifted her way through all the faces of the stars, let herself feel for the last time what it was like to be Somebody. She'd been saying goodbye, though maybe it wasn't a goodbye forever. "Listen – you write me if you do go high-tailing it off to England, okay? Us normal people gotta stick together."

Mavis was coughing again, but when it cleared, she smiled and nodded.

ooo

Gwen looked pale and exhausted and you could almost feel sorry for her lying in the infirmary bed, but Sally could hear the stream of [it wasn't my fault] [how dare they] [I hate them all] and it was decidedly lessening any sympathy she had.

"I don't see why I need to tell you anything," Gwen was saying now, scowling. "Perhaps I just wanted to look at your special machine."

"You may be an idiot," Alicia said, "but even you can't think any of us will believe that."

"I was worried about it," Gwen said. "I heard about it and I thought someone like _you_ shouldn't be able to stop people doing what they want with a machine like that."

"So you wormed your way in here, the way you always do -"

"Zerelda _offered_ to let me come," Gwen said, delivering her words to the ceiling. "That's not _my_ fault, is it?"

Sally felt a flicker of anger from Miss Peters, but it didn't translate into any spoken words.

"And then you manipulated several people enough to nearly get someone killed," Alicia said, "all so you could go and _look_ at this machine. And you just _happened_ to switch it on – and clearly had no idea what you were doing, because you nearly wiped yourself out. I think we've actually created an electric version of you – remember what you did to Mary-Lou? We can suck the life out of anyone now." [And don't I wish]

Gwen shrugged.

"And it's ironic," Alicia said, "because I think you might just have been given a taste of your own medicine." She grabbed Gwen's wrist before the other girl could shy away. "All right – so this is an excellent opportunity to take some of my power, isn't it?" [can feel] [horrible]

Gwen wrenched her arm away, glowering. Alicia, unconcerned, held out her hand to Sally, who passed her the first scalpel.

"Let's see who heals fastest," she said. "Oh, don't worry – it's been sterilised. Unlike you, I don't put people at risk through my own idiocy."

Sally might have argued with that, if she'd still been so angry, but as it was she just hid a smile and carried on listening to Gwen's thoughts, which were echoing her shout of, "Don't you _dare_ -"

Alicia grabbed her arm again and made a shallow cut on the back of her hand. Gwen yelped, but Alicia was already reaching for the second scalpel and making a similar cut on herself. Then she held her hand next to Gwen's, and they watched.

Alicia's skin was already knitting itself back together, making Sally think of raindrops evaporating. But the cut on Gwen's hand remained stubbornly open. She stared at it, eyes widening, [no] [no] [no] and then, "What did you do? You _beast_, what did you _do_?"

"I haven't done anything," Alicia said, as the cut vanished and she flexed her fingers. "You did all of this to yourself. Maybe your powers will come back. Maybe they won't. But either way, you can't have wanted this – so what on earth _did_ you want?"

Gwen bit her lip, tears starting in her eyes.

"Whoever you're working with, they really didn't do you any favours," Alicia said, softly. "Don't you feel an idiot for trusting them?"

"I didn't trust _anyone_!" Gwen snapped. "But I didn't exactly have a choice after the way _you_ treated me. You ruined my life -"

"You _did_ get a number of people killed and tried to murder one of my friends," Alicia said.

"She told me to come here and find out what was going on," Gwen said, stumbling over the words. "She said we could use the things here to really teach you a lesson. She doesn't like you much either. Not many people do, do they?" She glanced at Sally, smirked. [anyone can see]

Sally kept her face blank. Whatever had happened to Gwen had removed whatever skill she'd had at stopping her thoughts being read, which was useful but extremely unpleasant for the reader.

"And then?" Alicia said, shrugging off the jibe like she had the cut.

"I didn't mean to switch the stupid thing on, not then," Gwen said, turning red. "I tripped, I couldn't see in the dark. I fell against the buttons. Then I didn't know how to turn it off."

"So you haven't even de-powered yourself for any useful gain. That really is a pity."

Gwen's thoughts sharpened themselves into a line of hatred pointed directly at Alicia.

_I wonder if mine sounded like that?_ Sally thought. She'd never thought about it before, but Gwen would be the only person who could ever read her mind like she could read the rest of the world's. (She'd said, once, to Darrell, _do you feel it's unfair? That I can hear what you're thinking and you can't do the same to me?_

Darrell had said, _No. I don't need to hear what you're thinking, do I? I usually know_. And then she'd grinned and added, _Besides, if I had to hear all the mean things and stupid things people think, I'd be going up in smoke a hundred times a day! This is much better._)

"So," Alicia said, "Who exactly is this person with all the terrible ideas?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, come on."

"I don't!" Gwen sat up a bit. "She's not stupid, you know. I've spoken to her on the telephone and written letters to her. That's it." [would _like_ to] [see her and scold her, she's spoilt everything!] [all I know is] "I know she is a _she_, and she's as sick as I am of arrogant people who think they know everything about powers -"

"This isn't information, Gwen -"

"And she really hates you," Gwen said, a wry smile crossing her face. "She _really_ hates you, Alicia."

To anyone watching, Alicia seemed to take that as a melodramatic line she didn't need to give two hoots about. Only Sally heard the catch of her thoughts, the [it -] before she deliberately, with a glance, switched into mentally reciting the Periodic Table.

"What do you think?" she asked Sally afterwards. "I assume you'd have said if she were outright lying?"

Sally nodded. "No, I didn't hear her hiding anything. And I didn't sense any more knowledge about this person, either. She's right, as far as I could tell – just phone calls and letters. Since before she did everything the first time, even."

Alicia nodded. "Well, I don't think we can get much more information out of her, then. I want to see whether her powers come back, but then – I'm thinking, Sally, that it's a lot better to be able to keep an eye on her than to turn her over to the police. If they'd even be able to do anything, considering how much of what she's done is based on her powers."

"I can understand why you'd say that, but please don't tell me you want her to move in with us."

"Not exactly," Alicia said. She was smiling her usual thin smile and Sally could feel her thoughts lighting up with a new idea. "But I think, considering everything that's gone on – and that I seem to have got myself a nemesis – that might not be a bad idea to try and gather as many people with powers to me as possible. A collection of the gifted, as it were. And then -" She glanced briefly out at the desert, which was back to blue skies and still sand. "And then, whatever happens, hopefully... we'll be ready."


	13. Chapter 13

(A/N: Yes, it's been a while! I am sorry! If people are still reading, I hope you like! Written for the LiveJournal challenge 12daysChristmas, prompt '10 shocking moments', because I evidently need competition to motivate me to finish things…)

The train was held for about an hour. Felicity couldn't see why, and no one said anything about it while they were standing still. She heard doors slamming and voices calling, but further away, impossible to hear clearly. It was only after the train started moving that people started talking again. From behind Felicity, a man muttered, "Checking for undesirable characters, I'll be bound. Can't be too careful..."

"Gosh, _undesirables_," the girl sitting opposite Felicity murmured. "Come out and say it, they're looking for people with powers whom they think have been naughty. As if they could actually do anything." Their eyes met, and the girl smiled. "Oh... excuse me. Perhaps you're one of them? Perhaps you could overturn this train with a wave of your hand?"

She must have seen Felicity limping down the aisle with her stick, but she didn't follow up with anything like, _You clearly can't heal yourself_. Just leant back, stretching out her feet, and stared out at the darkening sky.

"My cousin will be furious," she said. "No doubt she'll think _I_ delayed the train somehow. What about you? Do you have people waiting to meet you?"

Felicity nodded, managed to smile. "My... my sister. I'm coming to stay with her."

"I bet she won't chew your ear off about being irresponsible," the other girl said. "You look like the trustworthy type!"

"She'll..." Felicity's mouth was dry; she told herself not to be a coward. Sitting down, she seemed just like anyone else, and soon she would be meeting _all_ of Darrell's new friends – she could hardly go quiet and hide behind her big sister then, could she? "She'll be cross, but with the... with the police for stopping the train."

"Oh, is she the writing-angry-letters type?"

"I... no. No, she just... She says it's changed such a lot since people became aware of – of those with powers."

"My cousin loathes it. She thinks she should be allowed to do whatever she jolly well wants, and hang the people who are scared of her!" She rattled it off casually, then looked over at Felicity: "Yes, she's one of _them_. Are you terribly shocked?"

Felicity quickly shook her head, though she _was_ a little shocked hearing someone spell it out so casually. Darrell had always behaved as though her powers were something to be ashamed of, certainly not something to boast about.

But it was something to be able to lean forward and say, "My sister is – she's the same. She can... do things. Can – are you able to –"

"Gosh, no." The girl shrugged. "Normal through and through. Bores my cousin no end, though, to be honest, she's bored by anyone whom she can't put under a microscope! I'm June, by the way. My cousin makes a hobby of collecting powered people... so goodness knows why she's invited _me_. I think my aunt had a word with her."

Felicity frowned, names from Darrell's letters coming back to her. "Is your cousin – is it Alicia? She – she studies people with... with abilities, she's got a big house where they can live..."

June grinned. "That's her. So your sister is one of her specimens? Gosh, how funny. We can share a taxi from the station, if we ever get there."

"Oh... I think Darrell is meeting me –"

June shrugged. "Well, whatever you want... though I wouldn't be surprised if something's come up and you're on your own. That seems to be the case with people who fancy themselves able to save the world! Don't worry, though. Us normal people need to stick together."

ooo

The tunnels were dark and the ceilings low, and even with all the lamps strung up at intervals Darrell still felt like she was wrapped in darkness.

Actually, no, the darkness wasn't the problem. It was the knowledge that if her powers got out of control then all she could do would be to bury herself and anyone else in rubble. "Did you plan it that way?" she asked Alicia when they first moved into the house above, the Court. "You thought it would be a good place to hide if I went to the bad?"

"Let's just say I'd like a bolthole if you do ever go into one of your famous rages," Alicia had said. "Well... a rage I wasn't expecting. You can be jolly useful sometimes."

That had made Darrell feel... well, feel how she did a lot of the time, that there were tunnels and shadows threading themselves throughout everything and she only knew about a tiny fraction of them. Certainly the idea of being _useful_ to Alicia wasn't a completely happy one.

Now, following Alicia down the main corridor, curved roof far too close to her head, she shivered, and told herself it was because it was always chilly underground.

"Here," Alicia said, pushing open one of the doors. "Darrell – meet Connie and Ruth. Our first set of twins."

Connie and Ruth were sitting around the table with Sally, who was already getting to her feet to come and give Darrell a hug. "You got here just in time! Connie and Ruth were just about to give me a demonstration of their powers."

The twins were both eyeing Alicia a little warily. Connie was stocky and well-built, glowing almost in the harsh light. Ruth was smaller and thinner, shadow crawling up from her throat and sitting in the hollows of her cheeks.

"Don't worry," Alicia said. "This is just a safer place than most to test out people's powers. Less furniture to destroy. Less chance of getting spotted. And it makes a good hideout if anyone comes looking for any of us."

"_Has_ anyone ever come looking?" Connie said, frowning. "I thought you were meant to be trusted. Everyone says people with powers can live here and it's all right –"

"And generally, it is," Alicia said. "It's just that, on occasion, people can make mistakes. Or be mistaken. And the way things are, I think it's better if us powered individuals deal with our own."

Darrell saw Sally press her lips anything, but the other girl didn't say anything.

"Never mind that now," Alicia said. "Show me what you've got."

Connie nodded. "Ruth and I need to be touching each other." She held up their clasped hands. Ruth glanced at their linked fingers, then down at the table.

"Once we're doing that," Sally said, suddenly, awkwardly, as if she were reading lines off a script, "We can make things happen. We can make people say things." She raised her hands, and clapped, three times. "Or do things. Just like that. We just have to think it, and –"

Darrell heard herself say, "The person does it. And we can do it to anyone –" Someone giving her lines, as if she was dreaming, as if she was reading a poem she didn't know – "Sometimes we can make them forget they even did it. But as soon as we let go of each other –"

Connie pulled her hand away from Ruth and Darrell felt the lines, the stored words someone else was feeding into her head, drop away and she was just herself again.

"It stops working," Connie said, holding up her hands to show they weren't touching Ruth's.

Darrell felt her knees trembling. She looked around for Sally, who had gone very pale.

"That's _brilliant_," Alicia whispered. She turned to Darrell and Sally. "Did it hurt? Did you know it was happening?"

Darrell managed to say, "It didn't hurt. It was... it was like I knew I was going to... to say things, but I didn't know – I didn't know what. Or why."

A grin spread over Alicia's face. "Symbiotic powers _and_ the two of you are related! Welcome to the Court, we're jolly pleased to have you! Let's go back up to ground level, I'll show you both round. Oh," she said, over her shoulder, as she headed towards the door, "you probably shouldn't use your powers on other people here. It's not good manners. And Darrell might blow your head off –"

The twins stared at Darrell in shock and she felt herself blushing. "Do shut up, Alicia. I don't do things like that."

"Mm-hm. Still, these are difficult times..."

The lightbulb in the room smashed as Alicia let the door swing closed behind her and the twins.

"Don't worry," Sally said, squeezing Darrell's arm. "You know what she's like. Are you all right? That was... that was the strangest thing I've ever felt."

Darrell nodded. "I'm fine. Don't worry. Are _you_ all right? Their thoughts must feel very strange to you, surely?"

Sally grimaced. "It's like they're one person with two streams of thought. They... the thoughts are tangled round each other. I couldn't... and when they – when they took me over, their thoughts were _my_ thoughts. It was as if I were shouting at myself in an echo chamber." She shivered. "But the point is that they're here among people who'll trust them and understand what it's like to be different. Listen, are you all right to stay down here a little longer? Wasn't your sister arriving today?"

Darrell nodded and tried not to scowl. "She was, she's here now. But Alicia's cousin seems to have palled up with her. I suppose if they're both not powered, it makes sense... so June is showing her around the main part of the house."

Sally gave her a sympathetic smile. "Felicity will be back at your side soon enough. Anyone can see she's thrilled to finally be spending time with you after you've been away for so long. And it's good if she makes friends here – she'll feel like part of the household rather than the odd one out."

"I suppose you're right. I just wish it was someone less..." Darrell stopped talking and remembered June's cool remark: _Don't worry, I'll show Felicity round. No doubt you have lots of important super-powered things to be getting on with!_ and her own savage desire to unleash her power and send the girl through the nearest wall. Which was not going to happen. She had her powers under control. Really, injuring Felicity all that time ago should have been enough to teach her the lesson that she was dangerous...

"Never mind," she said. "Why did you want to stay down here?"

"There's someone else Alicia wanted you to meet," Sally said.

ooo

Sally led Darrell to one of the rooms further down the corridor. Before they were halfway there she could feel the thoughts.

[get me out]

[don't let them find me]

[please don't let them find me]

She reached for Darrell's hand, trying to keep her balance amidst the waves of fear knocking against her thoughts.

[Flashes of blue light. A voice, _count backwards from ten._] [don't let them find me]

"Sally, are you..."

She nodded. "The... her thoughts are quite... quite strong." Reached the right door, knocked. "Clarissa? May we come in?"

The fear spiked in her head but over it, she heard Gwendoline Mary's peevish voice: "If you must. Clarissa's very tired, though."

Sally had come to see Clarissa a few times but it never stopped being a shock. The girl was very small and thin, huddled in a blanket, tangled red hair round her face. She ran her fingers through it when she was especially frightened – Sally felt it, every time, often found herself itching to tug at her own hair.

"Hello," she said. "Clarissa, I wanted to introduce you to my friend Darrell. Another one of us who's... unusual."

Clarissa looked up, squinted at them through dusty spectacle lenses. She managed a small smile, and Sally had to bite her lip against the flurry of [be friendly] [be nice] [be normal] [they're all so normal, why would they want you here] [send you away] [back outside] [back to them] –

"Um, hello." Darrell shuffled her feet a little. "It's – it's nice to meet you –"

"Clarissa's like me," Gwendoline said. "She used to have powers, but they got taken away, didn't they, Clarissa?"

Clarissa nodded, swallowed. [could fly] [wanted to fly] "Someone... someone told my mother they could... make me normal..." Her voice was very dry. [took me away] [dark] [count backwards from ten] [it hurt] [it hurt] [it **hurt**]

Sally had dug her nails into Darrell's arm before she could stop herself.

"I don't think it's very sensitive of you to come down here all the time, Sally," Gwen said, looking self-righteous. "It's very upsetting for Clarissa to be exposed to people with powers."

Darrell mumbled something like _it's very nice to meet you_ and then they were outside in the corridor again. Darrell waited until they were walking up the stairs leading back to the main house before she demanded, "Sally, what on earth _happened_ to her?"

"You know as much as we do. It sounds like someone here has got their hands on the same technology as the limiter device Miss Peters developed over in America. But she was making jolly sure not to test it on people at this stage, and… this person isn't being so careful. It's like what happened to Gwen, I think – a high enough dose to remove the powers completely – but it left Clarissa an invalid. These last few months, she became well enough to – to realise what had happened to her, and why. She wanted to warn Alicia. She's terrified that whoever did it will come after her. After – after us."

Darrell's eyes widened and a rush of thoughts about power, and lack of power, and things waiting in the dark, swept into Sally's head.

"Do you think that might... actually happen?" she said, at last.

"I don't know." Sally made herself smile at her friend. "But Alicia's only intrigued at the moment. I don't think we need to start worrying until she gets nervous. _My_ worry is more that I can't imagine it's good for Clarissa to be spending all that time with Gwen. She's filling Clarissa's head with all the things about us she knows will frighten her more. All our... past sins."

"Oh, golly." Darrell pulled a face. "Goodness knows we have enough of _those_. Though, Gwen's hardly blameless herself, is she? I suppose she's painting herself as the victim?"

Sally tried to keep some of the frustration out of her voice. "Yes. The way she tells it, the same thing happened to her as it did to Clarissa. Dragged off and her powers taken against her will. The fact that she was snooping around, it was entirely her own fault, and she'd attempted to do the same thing to Mary-Lou on more than one occasion..."

"Tends not to be mentioned?"

Sally nodded. "And it feels shabby to use those tactics, even if it's against her. I don't know, maybe it's better Clarissa is talking to someone rather than none of us." She took a deep breath. "I... I think Alicia is planning something, though. To find out what else happened to Clarissa."

"Something... Alicia-ish?"

Sally felt herself smile. "Probably. Still... no sense in worrying about it before it happens. Let's go back upstairs. See if you can find Felicity."

ooo

Blueprints laid out on the desk, lit only by one lamp. Alicia ran a finger over the parts of the tunnels she was pretty sure were under the Court. Then traced a route to the space under the hospital where, based on the frustratingly incomplete conversations over the past couple of weeks, Clarissa had almost certainly had her powers wrenched away.

"Building _another_ house?"

Alicia jumped and then wished she'd been able to keep her cool. June was standing in the doorway, hands in her pockets and the usual insouciant smile on her face.

"Not really any of your business, is it?" Alicia said, trying to keep her voice level.

"I'm only being friendly. You know, expressing an interest. We are family."

"You're snooping. Like you always do." Alicia liked to let other people be ruder than her – it was funnier that way – but June would brush off anything gentler than an outright slap.

"That's rich, coming from you." June had crossed the room in a moment and was bending over to study the blueprints. "Let me guess, you're going to break through your tunnels into these other ones and go running all round the city? Like a rat in a maze?"

"There's no law against it."

"Well, there probably _is_, but don't worry, I won't tell."

"You don't know that there is anything to tell."

"I think you're going to try and find out what happened to Clarissa," June said, pushing herself off from the table. "It's awfully creepy, isn't it?"

"It's none of your business."

"You know, I care just as much as you about bad things happening to people with powers," June said, scowling. "It isn't as if we're two different species. And why did you even invite me here if you didn't want me to find out about what you're doing?"

"To give you a place to go after the latest expulsion." Alicia heard her voice regaining some of its coolness. "As a favour to your mother. Honestly, I don't find this any easier than you do."

"You know –" June folded her arms – "you don't need to shut me out. Just because I'm not part of the superpowered club doesn't mean I can't be useful. You might want me around. I might be able to do things you haven't even thought of."

Alicia swallowed. It was very difficult not to come back with, _I've thought of a lot of things you might have done_. Oh, she wasn't certain – she was far from certain, which was why she'd invited June to stay and be observed – _but someone who hates me, someone who holds a grudge, someone who's clever enough to manipulate Gwendoline and Daphne into trying to hurt me –_

Still, Sally hadn't reported any unexpected broadcasts of revenge-filled thoughts. Which was why Alicia was keeping her suspicions to herself. No sense in giving June more fuel for her sense of importance.

"Do go away," she said. "I've got a lot to work on."

June looked for a moment as if she would stay just to be annoying, but then turned on her heel and left. The door slammed behind her.


	14. Chapter 14

Darrell felt as if she had been underground for weeks. Even the torch beams didn't help, they just made all the parts where they _weren't_ look darker. Sally squeezed her arm every so often – of course, she would be hearing Darrell's dislike – and ahead of them, Clarissa's breathing was shaky and tearful. Gwen, though, next to her, was practically strolling – probably enjoying her presence on this mission. _Clarissa will be too frightened to go without me._

Ruth and Connie, further back, seemed silent – probably a little shocked by how quickly Alicia had them doing something which probably wasn't legal – but Alicia herself, at the front, clearly wasn't scared at all. Darrell could tell that she wanted to move more quickly, that she was frustrated by having everyone else with her. _But Ruth and Connie's powers are too useful for us not to bring them_, she'd said, _and we need Clarissa to tell us what she remembers…_

They walked and walked. Every so often they passed through barred gates or locked doors – Alicia had procured various keys, Darrell had chosen not to ask from where. The air smelt of damp and stone. Many of the tunnels weren't lit at all. Occasionally, a torchbeam would pick out a worn sign from one organization or another, dissuading trespassers.

_Alicia's awfully determined_, she'd said to Sally, and her friend had just nodded. Darrell didn't need mind-reading to sense Sally's frustration.

_You don't like it?_

_I agree that what happened to Clarissa is terrible. But I think Alicia forgets that what we can do can be… quite frightening. She believes anyone who seeks to limit us wants to destroy us. I think that perhaps we… well, we need to learn limits, and if we can't, of course people will want to impose them._

Darrell could fill in the blanks. Alicia never let anyone set any limits on _her_.

"Here," Alicia called, holding up a hand and dragging Darrell out of her thoughts. "It should be through the next door. Now, as for getting in…"

Clarissa took a deep, shaking breath.

"Sally," Alicia continued, "are there any people nearby?"

Sally was silent for a few moments, eyes closing. Eventually, she said, "No one through that door. No one at street level, either, just –"

Her eyes flew open. "Wait – on the steps – further down this corridor – it's a service exit –"

"Hurry –" Alicia began, but Sally shook her head: "No. It's… Darrell, it's Felicity."

"What?" Darrell and Alicia both gasped.

They were both hurrying forward. The tunnel turned a corner and then in the light of the torch there was the skeletal shadow of metal steps and – yes – two small figures just stepping onto the ground. The light rushed over their faces: Felicity, wide-eyed and shrinking back, June with a half-smile on her face.

"What are you doing here?" Alicia said, voice for once devoid of any amusement.

"We wanted to come and help you out with whatever you're doing," June said, eyes widening. "Just because we're not special doesn't mean we can't be useful."

"This is _not_ useful," Alicia snapped. "The two of you need to get back up those stairs now. We're already a bigger group than I wanted."

"Of course," June said. "You don't trust other people not to get it wrong, do you –"

Darrell was already hurrying over to Felicity. "What on earth were you thinking? Especially with your leg – for goodness sake –"

"I know," Felicity mumbled, "but, Darrell, June's right… she said we shouldn't be leaving you to do all the difficult things. We need to show you we can stand on our own –"

"Not by inviting yourself along on something that _we_ shouldn't even really be doing!"

"Don't worry," June said. "I said I'd look after Felicity. I mean, you haven't done a very good job of it in the past, have you?"

It was extremely lucky that the rest of the group hurried round the corner at that moment. Darrell managed to choke off the power that wanted to fling June across the room. Even so, one of the torches jolted and burnt out, and the stairs rattled as if someone had kicked them.

"You need to go," Alicia was beginning, but Sally was shaking her head: "Not yet – there's someone up at street level – more than one person –" She frowned. "They… they know what's here. They know there's something down here. It's… this is the place, Alicia – they saw – they saw two girls sneaking around –"

"All right. Good." It was as if Alicia had chosen to forget June was even there. "Everyone, go back the way we've come, as fast as you can. Sally, take all the keys. Ruth, Connie, stay with me. I need you to get one of those people above to come down here and open the door for us, get me through to the inner sanctum. When I'm in, you go."

Connie frowned. "Won't you need us to get rid of the guards again so you can come back out?"

"No. I've got my own plan. Now, everyone, _move_."

Darrell nearly demanded to know what Alicia was doing, but she would have something worked out, and Felicity needed her more. The darkness seemed even thicker as they fought their way back through it. Ruth and Connie came hurrying after them before they had gone too far: they could hear Connie saying, crossly, "Come _on_ – " and then, as she came into view, "Alicia told us to run. All of us. Now."

The explosion rocked the stone under their feet about ten minutes later.

ooo

Darrell hardly remembered getting home. Confused memories of a starry sky, and smoke on the horizon. Sally getting her to drink a cup of tea. Felicity, pale, looking back as she followed June down the corridor to their rooms. The explosion ringing in her ears and pounding in her chest over and over again…

"Good morning."

Sunlight was streaming into the room. Darrell sat up in bed, rubbing her hand – still trembling – across her eyes, and saw Alicia in the doorway, looking as poised and calm as always.

"You… Alicia, what did you…"

"Spent most of the night regrowing my skin, for one thing." Alicia sauntered in, sat down on the end of the bed. "I set the charges and then I rode out the blast in a cupboard, but I still wouldn't recommend it if you're not me. On the other hand, I now know I heal even if there isn't enough left of me to think about it…"

Alicia certainly didn't look as if she'd been half-killed in an explosion – her skin unmarked, not a single scar or burn mark to show – but as Darrell studied her she saw that her friend's eyes were shadowed, her face hollow, as if the amount of regrowth had taken something out of her after all.

"You… you _blew up_ the place where they… where they did that to Clarissa," she said. The words were numb in her mouth.

Alicia nodded, a small smile on her face. "And not just Clarissa. They had a nice collection of records covering the success of the process. Or lack of success. Not everyone was as lucky as Clarissa."

"But…" Darrell felt as if the explosion were still going on, as if the noise was drowning out her thoughts. "But it was right under the hospital. And… and those guards Sally sensed, they…"

Alicia shrugged. "It rocked the foundations of the hospital, but it didn't wipe it out. I'm not a complete idiot. And those men should have known what they were getting into. Anyway, people will think twice now about using us as guinea pigs. People will realise that we matter."

Sally was in the kitchen, sipping coffee. The chilly look on her face showed Darrell she knew what had happened.

"No one was killed at the hospital," she said, pushing the day's newspapers towards Darrell. "But half the building is structurally unsound. Patients are being moved to other hospitals nearby."

"Those guards…"

"Yes."

"Sally, I don't think she cares at all." Darrell swallowed. The words were sticking in her throat. "Goodness knows I've hurt my fair share of people, but I… I _live_ with it. How can she just shrug it off?"

"I sometimes think," Sally said, "that Alicia forgets what it's like to be hurt badly when you aren't immediately going to recover from it."

Darrell shivered. She wanted to say, _Yes, but when I lose my temper that doesn't stop me. So what does that make me?_ But she couldn't. Perhaps she wasn't brave enough to hear the answer.

Sally sighed. "But if she thinks this is going to stop people from trying to control those with powers…"

Darrell nodded, and sat down at the kitchen table, trying not to look at the headlines.

"Maybe Alicia will feel she's proved her point now," Sally said. "And... I think it will show both sides how precarious the situation is." Darrell heard her move closer, looked round to smile at her. Sally would know what her fears were, but wasn't going to force her to confront them. Sally, at any rate, knew how to stop herself doing bad things.

Irregular footsteps limping towards them. Darrell was already looking round, knowing who it was, as the kitchen door burst open and Felicity stumbled in. "Oh, Darrell, I've been looking for you everywhere – it's June –" She staggered over to the table, sank into a chair. "Darrell, she says she's going to go to the police, tell them what she knows about last night. I don't understand it – she can't think they'll let her get away with joining? She's just gone, she said she was going right now..."

Darrell and Sally stared at each other. Darrell felt sick. _We'll all be arrested for it – surely June won't mention Felicity? Felicity didn't even want to be there – and is she really going to tell them it was Alicia who…_

Well, they could hardly let her just go off and do it. Felicity looked sick with terror and Darrell was not going to let June drag her sister into anything worse than she had already.

"I'll go after her," she said. "See if I can talk some sense into her. Perhaps she's shocked by what Alicia did, too."

The sun was already high in the sky and June's shadow stretched out alongside her. Darrell ran to catch her up, and June slowed, as if she'd been expecting someone to follow her.

"Hello," she said. "Felicity's back at the house, if you're looking for her."

"I'm looking for you. Felicity told me you were going to the police."

"After what my cousin did," June said, perfectly calmly, "I think that it's the only thing I _can_ do. Don't you? People have died, after all."

Darrell swallowed. "I – I know. Alicia went too far. But she had her reasons –"

"She couldn't stand the idea of someone taking away her specialness?" June said, smiling. "Yes, I suppose that is a reason. Well... I bet they've got other ways of doing it. When they find out what she did, they'll suck her dry."

Darrell stared at her and as if the breeze was whispering her the answer, she realised.

"It's to hurt Alicia," she said. "You don't care about the people who died, and you don't care what happens to the rest of us, either. You really are going to betray us just so that Alicia will be punished."

June shrugged, turned as if to carry on walking. Darrell grabbed her by the shoulder, in some way frightened that the girl would disappear. "Don't start pretending now. It's true, isn't it?"

"I don't like Alicia," June said. "I never have. That's not a crime." She smiled again. "And doesn't she need taking down a peg or two?"

It echoed through Darrell's head and it echoed what Gwendoline had said, talking about the person who had got her to do all those terrible things: _She really hates you. She really hates you, Alicia..._

And Alicia hadn't seemed surprised – Sally had said, Alicia had seemed barely shocked by that information –

"It..." Her voice was dry. "It isn't. It can't be you..."

June frowned, shook Darrell's hand off her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Someone's been pretty keen, all this time, to get rid of Alicia's powers. And now you're willing to get yourself arrested just to see it happen?"

"I want to do the _right thing_," June said.

"Then come back to the house with me." Although, if June was the person who'd cooked up the plans with Gwen to drain the powers of others – tried to kill Mary-Lou – "I don't know if Alicia's figured it out, but… Come back to the house. Now."

"Or what?" June said. A quick glance around. "Or you'll break my legs like you did Felicity's?"

The air went very still and Darrell couldn't even take a breath – to hear someone state it so coldly –

"I mean," June carried on, "if we're talking motivations, then isn't yours just because your parents would hate you even more if Felicity got mixed up in all this trouble? After they've forgiven you for trying to murder her? That would explain why you don't care about the deaths last night..."

Darrell was shoving June backwards and she was shoving her with all the power, too, because how dare she, how _dare_ she say that – how dare she say that and then pretend she was doing the right thing –

_And I didn't, I __**didn't**__, I __**never**__ wanted Felicity to die_ -

Her strength had been simmering under the surface for such a long time as she tried not to use it and it felt amazing, for that one second, to let it free.

Before she remembered that she couldn't let that happen.

She was screaming. She was screaming _No, no_. And the white-hot rage was clearing and – June would be hurt or dead and – after everything –

Broken glass covered the ground. Every window Darrell could see was shattered, and garden walls lay toppled over like piles of sand.

June stood in the centre of a crater, unharmed.


	15. Chapter 15

Clarissa didn't want to go near the others. She wanted to stay in her room underground where it was quiet and she couldn't see the sky. But Gwen wanted to find out what was going on and dragged Clarissa down the corridor to one of the other rooms, where Alicia and Sally and some other people Clarissa didn't know, or couldn't remember, were talking.

"Clarissa's worried about what's happened," Gwen said, when everyone looked at them. "We deserve to know too."

Clarissa leant against the wall and dug her nails into her arms. She was getting better. She was getting better. A few months ago she would have run screaming from this many people.

_And the running never felt like running, it felt as if she were wading through mud, because she knew she couldn't leave the ground no matter how hard she tried – _

"... should have guessed," Sally was saying. (Sally, who was cruel and angry and could hear everything you thought.) "When you and June found us in the tunnels, I didn't pick up on her thoughts. And everyone who saw it says that the force of Darrell's power had no effect on her." (Darrell, who once tried to kill Gwen just for a joke...)

Alicia, nodding. "I bet if Belinda drew her, it wouldn't do anything... or if Irene tried to apply chaos to her it wouldn't stick. Not that she isn't bringing quite enough of that along anyway."

"Little beast," Gwen muttered to Clarissa. "Talking as if she were powerless when all along she could fight back against any of us..."

"Where is Darrell?" Mary-Lou was saying. "Do... do you think they'll... that they'll do the same as..." She stopped, glanced over at Clarissa. Clarissa hugged herself even more, stared at her feet. _Stop being scared. Stop being so scared._ She thought of flying, of blue sky, of running her fingers through the tops of trees.

"I hope not," Alicia said. "I don't think they have the technology at the moment to take her powers away. And the press have received a call clarifying what exactly was blown up underground, so everything's out in the open. I've said we'll pay the cost of the damage Darrell did, and June's gone to ground again, so I doubt she'll be looking to press assault charges."

"And people know she's one of us now," Belinda said. "They might be a little less likely to believe she had nothing to do with the explosion, if she does try to report it."

"I think the same will apply to the rest of us who were present." Sally glanced coolly at Alicia, who shrugged, and said, "Well... we'll wait to see if Darrell is released. Or if she breaks a hole in the wall and storms out –" She stopped as Sally's eyes narrowed. "That is... when she comes back, we'll all be jolly nice to her. She gets so wound up about losing her temper and she'll be terrified she's killed someone."

"I agree," Gwendoline said. "We've all made mistakes. Darrell is one of us and we'll help her."

Alicia nodded. "Now, if no one else has anything to add... I'm exhausted after all this."

The others were wandering out. Irene and Belinda, chattering. Connie, pulling a pale, nervous Ruth by the hand. Felicity, eyes red and puffy. Gwen grabbed Clarissa's arm. "Come on, let's go back to your room. I can't stand it when they all act like they're all such great friends." She snorted. "And honestly, Darrell deserves everything she gets. She's dangerous, I think it serves her right, what happened."

Clarissa looked round at her, wondering if it was a joke, if she'd heard wrong, but Gwen's face was open and happy as if – as if –

"But you said..."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "I told you, they all hate me. I have to try and pretend I care." She put her arm round Clarissa. "Do come on –"

Sometimes, things happened, like when Clarissa had run and found herself running into the sky, like when she'd said she wouldn't stay at home any more, when she'd given money to Alicia to buy the house and fill it with people like her. A thing happened now. She had wrenched herself away from Gwen and she was saying, "I think you're horrible."

And Gwen was staring at her, mouth falling open, and Clarissa could see her friendship crumbling and what had she done, what had she _done_, Gwen was the only safe person here...

She was running. Away from her room because Gwen was that way. Down another corridor. Faster and faster but not fast enough and –

She crashed into someone else and sprawled across the floor.

"Gosh, are you all right?"

It was... it was the girl with short hair. The one who had once gone out in a storm to talk to horses. Bill.

"Here." Bill reached out a hand to her, and she took it before she could think, staggered to her feet. "You look awfully pale. It's a beautiful day outside – do you want to come riding with me? I asked around and there's some horses at a school nearby who'd be happy to take us out."

Clarissa knew she was meant to be safe down here in the dark but Gwen was down here and so was the route back to the past and the hurting. And this girl, talking so calmly as if none of that had happened, was offering her an escape. She managed to nod. "I... I'd like that. Thank you."

ooo

People were watching. Darrell could feel it. Not only the others at the Court, glancing at her when she passed them or stopping whispering if she entered a room; but the reporters who kept hanging around the front gate, and the men Sally had confirmed were police officers just happening to park outside.

Sally hugged her and held on for a long time when she came home. She was trying to behave as she usually did, now – asking Darrell if she wanted tea, giving her news of the others – but she had whispered in Darrell's ear _I missed you so much, I was so scared_ and Darrell had hugged her back and hardly been able to say _I missed you too_.

But now they were sitting in the drawing room with the light streaming in, drinking tea and eating toast, and Sally had just finished telling Darrell about how Clarissa had made friends with Bill and never looked back. "They're out every day riding. I can hardly believe it's the same person. Her thoughts are practically _singing_."

"That's the good news," Darrell said, "but there's something else, isn't there? You look worried. Is it – has June come back after all?"

"No, nothing like that – and goodness, I think Felicity would throw her out herself if she did! She's furious with her!" Sally sighed. "We think someone is picking on Connie."

She stared out at the birds wheeling across the sky. "She lost her scarf and it was found torn to shreds in the garden a few days later. Someone keeps doing things like taking the laces out of her shoes, or hiding her coat and hat. When it was stormy the other day, someone opened her bedroom window wide so the rain blew in, and a locket with a picture of her parents in has been stolen. Stupid, petty things, as if we were children."

"In a house full of people with supernatural powers?" Darrell frowned. "Can't you get a hint of who's doing it? Surely their thoughts –"

Sally shook her head. "And I can't believe most of us would act like that. I did wonder about Gwendoline – goodness knows she's got a reputation for sneaking around – but there's no trace of it in her mind. Connie doesn't know either, and Ruth is just so upset about it, she constantly tries to fix the problems and cries and cries inside that her twin is upset. She never leaves Connie's side… So I don't know."

Ruth did look unhappy. At supper that evening, she barely ate, and hardly ever took her eyes off Connie. Still, everyone seemed tired and worried. Even Alicia looked wrung out.

After supper, everyone was hanging around to make tea or coffee and talk in corners. Darrell couldn't face having people ask her _Wasn't it terrible, thinking you were going to jail?_ or _But surely you would have broken down the walls if they'd actually tried it?_ She went upstairs to her room, tried to read, but the words didn't make sense.

She must have fallen asleep. She was out by the stairs, thinking she would like a drink of water – one light was burning but around her everything was still –

Someone was sobbing on the floor below. Darrell rushed down the stairs. Connie was kneeling on the landing, clutching her arm. Several other people clustered around her.

"Someone _pushed_ you?" Belinda gasped. "What – at the top of the stairs?"

"Why on earth –"

"Did you see who?"

Connie, gulping, shook her head. "I heard someone running away. I managed to, to grab onto the bannisters. And Ruth was there, but she didn't see anyone either."

"This has gone beyond a joke."

"Are we sure we don't have an invisible girl living here?

"Where's Alicia?"

"She said she wasn't feeling well. She went to bed."

Ruth was helping Connie to her feet. "Connie, come and lie down in my room... you'll be safe there, I'll keep a watch –"

Connie shook her off. "Do stop fussing, I'm all right. I only fell a few steps. I'm fine."

Everyone else was watching Connie, who was still rubbing her arm but was walking steadily. But Darrell was still watching Ruth, and saw the hurt flickering across her face.

Suddenly, she understood.

ooo

The greenhouse was empty of plants and several of the panes were cracked. Hardly anyone ever came down to it – _it might be useful if we ever get someone who can do plant magic_, Alicia had said, _but until then I have more important things to spend the time and money on –_

Daphne had seen Ruth come out here, so Darrell pushed open the door – it creaked – and stepped inside. It wasn't a cold day, but the bare shelves and ground, the empty flowerpots, made her feel chillier, as if everything had been killed off by frost.

"Ruth? Are you there?"

_Something_ grabbed her and shoved her backwards but there was no one there. No. It wasn't something. She'd stumbled backwards. As if her legs had decided to get her out of here.

"Ruth, it's all right. I..." She swallowed. "I haven't told anyone –"

Her hand pressing against her own mouth as if she were shocked at what she'd said. She wanted to turn and run but she _had_ to talk to Ruth. This was only proving what she had suspected. After a few moments, she felt her hand falling back to her side, as if Ruth had expected her to have been scared off.

"Ruth?"

"Go _away_!" The scream echoed off the glass. "I mean it, if you don't – if you don't – I can make you do anything, I could make you kill yourself if, if I wanted, go away…"

Darrell almost did back away at that. There were several jagged pieces of broken glass near her and Ruth's power was impossible to grasp. She would be inside Darrell's head before Darrell knew it.

But she sounded so frightened.

"I know what it's like to... to feel as though your power is... taking everything over." Darrell tried to keep her voice steady. "You know I've done some pretty awful things. But... but there's always a way back..."

"You don't know _anything_!"

Ruth had been sitting at the other end of the greenhouse, out of view, and now she stood up.

"You don't know," she said again. She was trembling.

"I know I don't." Darrell took a careful step forward. "Can… can you tell me?"

Ruth stared at her for a second and then she started to cry, covering her face with her hands. Darrell strode the rest of the way to her, knelt down on the grimy floor.

"It's all right," she said.

"How did you find out?" Ruth whispered. Tears were smearing the earth on her hands. She was clutching something in them. Darrell took a deep breath, reached out to her fingers. She pulled them open and a locket, smeared with dirt, fell onto her palm.

"Belinda took it," Ruth was saying, through tears, "because she had to take something and it was there. And I couldn't break it, I couldn't... I was going to bury it so I came out here, no one comes here... and there wasn't any earth in here, everything is dead..."

"Has it... every time something happened to Connie, has it been – has it been one of us doing it?"

Ruth nodded. "It… it's a lie, us needing to hold on to each other. Connie wants to believe it because then we have to stay together, but we know it's not real... and I was so angry with her and I kept, I kept... she talks like she knows everything about the power but I can... I only had to think about it, about hurting her, and someone would do it and then you wouldn't even remember, I could make it so you wouldn't remember..."

Darrell nodded. "Did I... was it me who pushed – who pushed Connie down the stairs?"

Ruth rubbed her face. "I... yes. Yes, it was... but I didn't mean to... I was angry with her and it all... fitted together in my mind. I didn't want her to die. I just want her to... I just..."

"What?"

"We've had the power, both of us, ever since I can remember," Ruth said. "But... I didn't know it was... it was that. When I was with Connie, she thought up plans and everyone did them and I did them too. When I was on my own I... I could make people do things but I wasn't on my own much because she's my twin and we're always together."

She sniffed.

"Connie said we had to hold hands otherwise the power wouldn't work. It's not... it's not that. If I touch someone, the power is stronger. Easier. Connie... Connie's power isn't as much as mine. She... I didn't realise til I came here, and Alicia and Sally were looking at how we work and… Connie uses her power on me, and I use it on who she wants me to. She's done it for so long and I... she won't listen. She thinks it's better for her to do all the thinking."

She buried her face in her hands again. "Darrell, I just want her to stop..."

Darrell didn't know what to say – how could you say anything to such a horrible story? – but she put an arm round Ruth and said, "We'll sort it out. We'll make it stop. I think it must have been very odd and… and scary for both of you, being able to make other people do things. It's not surprising everything's a bit strange. But we'll sort it out, me and Sally and the others. I promise."

ooo

Alicia had only meant to lie down for a minute. So tired. So terribly tired. She woke up with dampness on her face. Put a hand to her nose and it came away bloody.

Blink, and the sunlight had moved. Mary-Lou was there. A cool hand on her forehead. "Ssh. Lie still, Alicia. It's going to be all right."

It didn't feel all right. It felt as if the air was pressing down on her. Every time she closed her eyes she saw blood on her hands and her heart fluttered in her chest.

_I must be ill_, she thought, but she never got ill. She never got hurt. She shrugged everything off. Blood on her hands. Watching skin rush itself back over muscle and bone. June staring at her. _Just because we're not special._

Was this what it felt like? Three of the men had died immediately. One of them had not. He had been taken to hospital. He had died a few days later. He had deserved it. She knew he deserved it.

_Don't you deserve this, then?_ June said.

She probably did, but then why was she so scared? She was crying and she was saying, _I'm sorry, I'm sorry_ over and over again. Mary-Lou was saying, _It's all right_, but Mary-Lou forgave everyone.

And June said to her, _Don't pretend you did it for the greater good. You did it because you were frightened they'd make you normal. Make you weak. And now you know why…_

Everything dark,

"Golly," Irene was saying, perched on top of the chest of drawers, swinging her feet. "We thought we were going to lose you."

Alicia blinked and blinked again and time stayed moving in a straight line. She felt... she felt as if she'd been knocked off her feet and couldn't get back up, but nothing worse than that. Just… so tired.

"What..." She swallowed. "What happened?"

"Well," Irene said, "Not that we know, given that you're the clever science one, but we _think_ that the machine you exploded gave you a big dose of whatever it contains that takes people's powers. And because your power is healing, it was a lot harder for you to, you know, rest up and heal from the effects."

She clambered off the chest of drawers. "I shouldn't come any closer in case I break you. This is the first time Mary-Lou's let me in here! I'll tell her you've woken up, and the others too. Everyone's been awfully worried, and... why, Alicia, you're crying!"

(A/N: And that concludes my writing on Upper Fourth! Be back when I have figured out how to represent a school pantomime in this setting…)


End file.
